In a TED talk given by The End of Polio Campaign Manager Michael Sheldrick, he shares the monumental progress that has been made in polio eradication, and shows the importance of facing up to challenges ahead. The blog that follows is republished from The End Of Polio. You can read the original article here.
As someone who was born long after polio was eliminated in Australia, a question I frequently get asked is “why do you care about this issue?”
As a child, my only experience with polio was through vaccination. It’s hard for me to imagine that just over fifty years ago fear of this disease shut down schools and public pools around the country. But a conversation with a Rotarian from Perth gave me a small insight into the effect this disease can have on individuals, and the importance of ensuring children in our world’s most vulnerable communities are protected from its impacts.
David was just 21 when he collapsed in the middle of the street, struck down by polio. He was left in a coma for a week, and when he awoke, was only able to move one finger, and even then only barely. Over a series of excruciating months and years, David slowly recovered the use of his limbs, but never fully recovered from the disease. Pulling up his trouser leg to reveal the calliper he still wears, David’s final remark on the topic really struck me:
“I have been suffering from polio for the last 55 years of my life. I don’t need anyone’s pity, I just want us to get on and eradicate the damn thing. No child should go through what I went through.”
I was lucky enough to be born after the years of epidemics, but through David, I have begun to grasp what impact this disease has on individuals. Although the spread of polio isn’t something that affects my generation of Australians, it is a disease that continues to threaten the lives and livelihoods of those living in some of the most vulnerable communities in our world.
That’s why I’m passionate about this issue, and why the Global Poverty Project launched The End of Polio campaign. We work with Rotary International, the World Health Organisation, UNICEF and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to build the public support needed to eradicate this disease.
Global collaboration over the past 30 years has reduced polio cases by 99%, and put the end of this disease within reach. But this eradication opportunity is currently at risk, with a funding gap constraining the work of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, the public-private partnership leading eradication efforts. That's why we're calling on world leaders to support eradication.
Already, the campaign is having incredible impact. It is putting this issue back in the headlines, and grabbing the attention of decision makers in Canberra. A while ago I joined Chris Maher, the Acting Director of Polio Eradication and Monitoring Research at the WHO, in Canberra and had some really positive discussions around the opportunity for eradication with key Australian government officials.
Since we launched the campaign, more than 26,000 people have joined our call on governments to support the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, and realise the end of this disease.
Please share our campaign with friends, and join the call for world leaders to help end this disease for future generations around the world.
On a personal note, I was struck by polio at the age of five, but through an international cricket career lasting over a decade and a half, that never really worried me.
There were all kinds of theories in my playing days. That I was a contortionist who could rotate his wrist 360 degrees. That my fingers gripped the ball differently thanks to an attack of polio, and therefore confused batsmen. I was usually amused, but occasionally irritated. The truth was more mundane and more painful.
When I came down with a fever in 1951 or so, I could not offer a handshake since I could not raise my right arm. I think I was too young to be particularly worried, but my parents rushed me to the local hospital. I tried to shake the doctor’s hand as I had been taught to, but just could not do it. The doctor looked worried. So did my parents. They went into a huddle. I left the hospital with my right arm in plaster. Nobody told me what was wrong.
I had been struck by polio, and my right arm lacked all strength. When the plaster was removed, the right arm was significantly thinner than the left. But crucially, the disease had been arrested. Thereafter the arm was massaged by cod liver oil. I think I drank some of it too, although I am not very sure now. School children can be cruel – but nobody noticed my problem when I started going to school.
For the first two years, I could do nothing with my right arm. Gradually I reconciled myself to the idea that my right arm would never be the same again, nor would it grow into its normal strength. Even six years later, when I was 11 or so, I struggled to raise my right arm. But still I was taking lot of interest in cricket (I was playing Shuttle and Table Tennis also with left hand) and played for school, college, and my club rarely and I was also enjoying my tennis ball cricket in the backyard, streets and in small grounds At 18, I played my first inter-club match. That was in July of 1963. I hadn’t yet begun dreaming of playing in the Ranji Trophy, our national championship. Yet within six months, I was playing for India! I made my debut against Mike Smith’s England in January 1964. My captain was the great Nawab of Pataudi, and he indicated to me very early that he saw me as India’s main strike bowler, my business to take wickets!
It was incredible! India were led by a player with one good eye and depended on wickets on a bowler with one good arm. I bowled faster than your average leg spinner, and bowled a higher proportion of googlies and top spinners than most. From the outfield I threw in left handed. My right arm was for bowling, and I was happy to finish with 242 wickets from 58 Tests. More importantly, I had a role to play in India’s first wins in England (1971) and Australia (1977-78).
As I developed as a bowler, it was suggested that perhaps the attack of polio had been a blessing, allowing me to bowl ‘freakishly’. This is not true. It only meant I had to work harder to make up for the weakened right arm. Polio can never be a blessing. It is incurable. But it can be prevented. I was one of the lucky ones, given a glimpse of the horror and then withdrawn quickly from the edge. The disease is on the verge of being eradicated, and we must throw all our muscle behind that final push to ensure that it is gone forever.
It is my privilege to be here in Australia to celebrate India's milestone achievement - 12 months without a single case of polio. I know first-hand the impact of polio and I am encouraged to see, in my lifetime, India make significant inroads in the fight to end this paralysing disease.
Please join me in getting behind the heroes who are helping stop the spread of this paralysing disease, by uploading a message of support for India’s polio eradication team at http://www.theendofpolio.com/home/phototool-365no/
- Spin bowling legend, 1972 Wisden Cricketer of the Year and polio survivor, Bhagwath Chandrasekhar.
October’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) heralded important progress in the fight against polio, for a number of reasons: one of which has managed to fly below the radar.
The morning after The End of Polio Concert, at a Special Press Conference called to discuss polio eradication, five world leaders together with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, pledged an additional $118 million to global polio eradication efforts: providing crucial funding which will help the Global Polio Eradication Initiative purchase much needed vaccines; identify, respond to, and mitigate new outbreaks of this debilitating disease.
But this press conference also featured a second, equally important, non-monetary commitment, when the leaders of Nigeria and Pakistan – two of the remaining four endemic countries – affirmed their commitment to addressing the spread of polio in their communities.
President Jonathan of Nigeria promised the world “that in the next two years, we will eradicate polio”, and Prime Minister Gilani of Pakistan pledged that his Government would utilise all possible resources regarding polio eradication – commitments that will be absolutely critical to the success of eradication efforts – and to progress in the broader fight to stop preventable disease and tackle extreme poverty.
Although less likely to make the headlines, strong political buy-in and leadership is just as crucial as funding when it comes to the achievement of eradication targets. This highlighted in one of the most significant polio success stories of recent times: India.
India is considered a ‘perfect storm’ when it comes to the spread of polio: birth rates are high, populations are dense, and sanitation is terrible. These conditions make it ripe for polio to spread. But despite these challenges, by getting local officials involved in vaccination efforts, India has made such incredible progress tackling the disease that not a single case of polio has been reported in the country since January this year – offering the very real possibility that India will be considered polio free within the next few years.
Strong national and local leadership is also referenced as one of the key factors that has helped Nigeria achieve its remarkable reduction of polio by 95% since 2009.
While they don’t attract the fanfare of a multi-million dollar commitment, October’s CHOGM commitments will be key to advancing the fight against polio. In fact, we’re already seeing them take effect: since Prime Minister Gilani’s announcement, Government officials who fail to meet performance targets in Pakistan’s eradication program have been threatened with tough action, and chief ministers and other local leaders have been urged to make polio eradication a priority.
This high level leadership is crucial to achieving eradication goals, particularly in Pakistan, which has the highest number of polio cases amongst the four remaining polio endemic countries. And achieving further buy in from local leaders will also be critical. Indeed, according to the World Health Organisation’s analysis, it may be a game changer, with findings suggesting low levels of viral persistence correlate with high levels of local leadership.
As Former British PM Tony Blair recently pointed out in the Washington Post, effective development “requires action on all sides.”
That’s why here at the Global Poverty Project we will celebrate October’s important political commitment, and continue to campaign for both financial and political action. We’ll also continue to campaign for systemic change on trade and governance rules – to ensure that governments are held to account for their promises and commitments to their citizens.
On the 29th October 2011 in response to the Global Poverty Project's The End of Polio campaign, the Australian Government committed $50 million to polio eradication efforts - helping to close the funding gap currently limiting global vaccination work.
To celebrate this important announcement, organisation co-founders Hugh Evans and Simon Moss sent this message to campaign supporters -- sharing the grassroots beginnings of a campaign that is helping realise the end of the second human disease in history.
My name is Piper Paquen and I’ve been uncovering a monumental story. Dimes marching, miracle discoveries and an army of health workers were just the beginning. Read on to find out how I joined the biggest movement of our time and how every one of us, including you, can end this story altogether.... ushering in a whole new era.
Following the pictographs on a mysterious ring, I discovered the story of a powerful public figure paralysed by a crippling disease and a country gripped by fear of infection. The story of a disease that could strike anywhere and destroy the lives of millions of children and adults, a disease that created a movement by the people, creating a vaccine for the people. A disease called Polio.
Miss the last part of my story? You can catch up here.
I discovered a global effort using a new and improved vaccine to reach the most vulnerable communities on the planet, thanks to the father of the oral polio vaccine, Albert Sabin.
I learned that wars would prevent immunisations reaching those that needed it most... and that armies would part to let crucial work against polio continue. But there was something missing.
I had solved the puzzle of the pictographs, following the incredible story of polio from 1921 all the way to a movement to stop the disease during conflicts in the 1960’s... But as I looked at the last picture I wondered about the effects of polio today.
I marvelled at the scale of a monumental movement to end the disease happening right now, across the world and in Australia, America and the UK. I imagined a huge gathering and a chance for millions of young people to play a part in the greatest achievement of our generation, celebrating the end to polio in our lifetime.
How did such an enormous effort reach a global scale that today has ended 99% of polio cases, down to just 421 in 2011 from more than a 1000 cases worldwide in a single day in 1988?
Polio – a disease which has disabled millions and pulled individuals further into poverty – has been reduced by 99% over the past 30 years, and its end is within our reach.
In 1990, the Initiative established the Global Polio Laboratory Network to detect and research the virus across the globe and in 1994 the World Health Organisation announced the last cases of polio in Central and South America – with the Western Pacific being certified polio free in 2000 and Europe following in 2002.
With bigger and bigger vaccination programs after the millennium, polio was beaten back despite severe conflicts in polio endemic regions of Africa and fresh outbreaks in West Africa, Yemen and Indonesia. Today, polio is endemic in just four countries, representing a reduction in cases by more than 99%: in NIgeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan and India.
We’ve reached the brink of defeating polio forever... but in 2011 we need to overcome a funding gap to make sure that the work of the Polio Eradication Initiative and Rotary International continues this incredible by story reaching those most in need.
In 2000, a record of 550 million children received the oral polio vaccine – almost 10% of the world’s population. Even more were vaccinated in 2001, and in 2006 there were only four countries left.
Ending polio is the missing piece. By supporting the Global Poverty Project, Rotary International and the Polio Eradication Initiative, I believe we can make this the monumental achievement of our generation. That’s why I started a petition to call on our world’s leaders and make it happen.
Together we can end polio and complete the missing piece. With a signature you will be adding your voice to the thousands of supporters calling for an end to a crippling and potentially fatal disease that threatens the lives and prosperity of millions. For every signature, Rotary will vaccinate a child in need and give us a chance to finish the story.
That’s 5 million children who can now play, learn and grow free from Polio. That’s 5 million reasons to make this the monumental achievement of our generation.
This is the story of Polio. This is your story. You can support the end of polio by joining my facebook page and follow the latest news from the movement at theendofpolio.com!
Following the pictographs on a mysterious ring, I discovered the story of a powerful public figure paralysed by a crippling disease and a country gripped by fear of infection. The story of a disease that could strike anywhere and destroy the lives of millions of children and adults, a disease that created a movement by the people, creating a vaccine for the people. A disease called Polio.
