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Polio fades, but Rotarians campaign to get rid of it By Bill Kettler Polio is fading around the world, and your friends in Rotary want to make it disappear for good. Rotarians from across the Rogue Valley gathered in Medford Wednesday to hear a California doctor report on the international service club�s worldwide campaign against the crippling disease. Dr. Joe Serra told local club members that Rotary still hopes to eradicate polio by 2005 to mark the organization�s centennial. The goal of eliminating polio surfaced in 1985, and the Sacramento physician and Rotary member has worked for years in the international effort. In an interview prior to his Medford presentation, Serra said Rotary clubs have raised about $330 million since 1985 to buy vaccines and help local public health groups organize immunization clinics. "It was a real easy sell," Serra said. "The vaccine cost 4 cents a dose. For 12 cents you could immunize a kid." During the past 15 years, Rotarians have helped immunize millions of children in the program, which operates in conjunction with the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Serra said warring factions have been known to lay down their arms briefly to allow immunization clinics to operate. Rogue Valley Rotarians raised nearly $1 million for the original campaign between 1985 to 1988, about 1 percent of the total raised by Rotary clubs across the United States. "It was without a doubt the largest undertaking any of these clubs had ever done," said Central Point Rotarian Dave Hyatt. "Each club had a target. They had barbecues, auctions and swap meets. They twisted arms and did anything they could think of to raise the money." Serra said the number of new polio cases worldwide has plummeted from about 300,000 per year prior to the immunization campaign to about 7,000 per year in 1998. Polio has been eliminated in all but about two dozen nations, mostly in sub-Sahara Africa and western Asia. Oral vaccines make the immunization process much easier to accomplish, he said. Some cultures would never allow their children to be immunized with an injection, but few people in the developing world have qualms about giving their children an oral vaccine. Hyatt said Rotary clubs in the United States soon will be asked to work with small rural communities in developing nations where immunizations still need to be done. "Then we�ll try to raise the funds to say we eradicated polio in this one small area," he said. "It will be like we adopt the community." Serra said polio can be eliminated if the vaccination program continues. "Scientifically it�s very do-able, and just a matter of time. "The virus will just die out," he said. "It can�t survive if people are immunized. "If we can sustain the immunization program, we will have it bagged, no doubt about it." Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.