Why Vaccines Are Important.
Okay, so Ramesh Ferris looks nothing like Mal Reynolds. For one thing, Ramesh has more muscle in his upper body. For another, Ramesh is of Indian descent (as in, he was born in India). But he's still a "Big Damn Hero" in my mind.
Ramesh is a polio survivor. He was adopted from an orphanage in India by the current Anglican bishop of the Diocese of Algoma, Ron Ferris, and has lived nearly all of his life in Canada. Because of this, he has had access to all kinds of health care and rehabilitation that he would not have had in India.
Ramesh can walk because of crutches and braces, but he only has these things because he was lucky enough to be adopted into a Canadian family. Six years ago, he visited India and saw first-hand what his life would have been like without that intervention.
Now, Ramesh is using a hand-cycle to cross Canada - from Victoria, British Columbia right through to Cape Spear, Newfoundland. I met him on Canada Day (July 1), as I was attending the celebrations in Thunder Bay, Ontario, with my parents. (I am currently on vacation, house-sitting and cat-sitting for my parents as they visit my youngest brother and his wife in Toronto.)
I've provided some links below so you can explore things on your own, but I wanted to give a nice preamble and leave you with some facts about polio to keep your brain active for the next little while. All of these points can be found on the official web site for Cycle to Walk.
Polio (poliomyelitis, or poliovirus) – source: http://www.rotary.org/
- Enters through mouth; multiplies in tonsils and lymph nodes. Proceeds to
gastrointestinal tract.- Virus multiplies in intestines and spreads via feces (diaper changes, contaminated water, poor hygiene, etc.).
- Can cause paralysis within hours and attacks motor neurons in the brain stem, affecting breathing.
- More than 10 million children will be paralyzed in the next 40 years if the world fails to capitalize on its US$4 billion global investment in eradication.
- Historically, polio has been the world’s greatest cause of disability.
- A single dose of vaccine can cost as little as US60¢.
Polio in the Developed World
- Polio is literally an airplane ride away.
- Like people in other developed countries where national immunization programs have protected generations from the devastations of polio since the introduction of the Salk (1954) and Sabin (1961) vaccines, Canadians have come to feel so safe from the disease, that many now consider it unnecessary to immunize their children.
- In today’s age of frequent, international travel, all non-immunized people are at risk no matter where they live. Polio is literally an airplane ride away.
- In July 2007, a positive case of polio was confirmed in Australia, as was the case in 2006 in Singapore. The GPEI News also reported the isolation of wild poliovirus (wpv) in the sewer water of the city of Geneva in August 2007. It is “due to high vaccination coverage and good sanitation” that detection of the virus was not considered to “represent a significant risk of outbreak.”
Polio in Canada
- If asked, most Canadians would say that polio is “solved.” So, educating Canadians about polio, the vaccines and advocating continued immunization is absolutely necessary.
- Polio is not solved.
- In Canada, the immunization rate against polio is at 89%; leaving nearly four million Canadians (11%) vulnerable to this viral infection. According to WHO calculations, the rate of immunization is presently low enough to put Canada at risk for at least localized outbreaks.
- “As long as a single child remains infected with the poliovirus, children in all countries are at risk of contracting the disease. The poliovirus can easily be imported into a polio-free country and can spread rapidly amongst immunized populations. Between 2003 and 2005, 25 previously polio-free countries were reinfected due to importations.” - (WHO)
- Canadians should be aware that in addition to the threat of new polio infections, more than 10 million polio survivors worldwide are living without access to the rehabilitative support that would enable them to overcome the devastating physical effects of polio.
Polio in the Developing World
- Despite the great success of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), spearheaded by Rotary International (R.I.), the World Health Organization (WHO), the U.S. Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and UNICEF, in reducing the number of new cases by 99% since 1988, the hard fact is today, polio is still very present in four countries; India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.
- Polio remains endemic in four countries:
Nigeria: 264 new infections
India: 590 new infections
Pakistan: 30 new infections
Afghanistan: 13 new infections
Polio has re-infected the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with 41 new cases in 2007. A total of 95 instances of polio infection occurred in non-endemic countries in 2007.A Culture of Crawlers
Year-to-date infections in 2007 Source: http://www.polioeradication.org/
- They are doomed to living on the ground, to getting about from place to place by crawling, using sandals over their hands to protect them and pieces of rubber tires strapped over their knees... These polio survivors without rehabilitative support are called ‘Crawlers’. They are so many as to constitute a ‘Culture of Crawlers.’
- They need our help.
1 comments:
Excellent piece. People don't realize how devastating polio can be. My mother-in-law had polio as a child and it actually damaged her hearing and cannot hear without hearing aids. She had non-paralytic polio and developed meningitis. She always says how lucky she was compared to others.
I believe that if people could actually see what the real effects of allowing these diseases to take their natural course, they would surely vaccinate.
Post a Comment