Weekly Meeting - Peter Wells (End Polio Now)

Wed, Jan 13th 2016 at 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm

Friend: Roger Hart
VOT: John Markwell

Peter Wells - End Polio Now

In spite of being stricken with Polio in his younger years, Peter has followed a successful career as a school head teacher and describes himself as a "Polio Survivor" whilst so many have not been so fortunate.   Over the years he has acquired an extensive knowledge of the disease through his work with Rotary and has had hands on experience overseas as part of the international campaign to eliminate Polio.

Peter reminded us of the long fight against the paralysing condition which, at one time, was a worldwide threat with no sign of preventative treatment being discovered. Options included such unlikely experiments as the application of leeches in 1850, electric shocks in 1900 and even cobra venom tried in 1960. Eventually, an effective vaccine was developed, tested and made available.

It is now 30 years since the Polio Plus campaign was launched but much earlier, in the 1970s, Rotary International took up the challenge and in 1979 financed and managed a scheme to immunise six million children in the Philippines. Slowly, we are moving towards our objective of eliminating Polio from the whole world but remain aware that some difficult areas are stilll a problem.   Security of vaccination teams and suspicion by some communities of the treatment available, are now the biggest threat to our plans. There have, sadly, been tragic incidents involving loss of life in regions such as Pakistan, where medical teams have been attacked.

A strain of the disease, known as Type 3 Wild Polio, has not been seen for three years now and hopefully, this variant has disappeared forever.   The fight against Type 1 continues and our Rotary Club keeps up its own commitment to help the cause, even if we cannot, on our own, match the contribution of Bill Gates.

John Markwell.

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