Reporting from India - August 23, 2004:

He was a victim of the dreaded polio virus, who now is volunteering to do what he can to ensure that other children will not become afflicted as he did by the disease that crippled so many millions of others. His three-wheel, hand powered bike has a banner wrapped around the back with the information of the immunization campaign. Although polio deprived his legs from being able to peddle a bike, the strength of his arms enables him to turn the hand-gears that propels him though the narrow, twisting streets of the villages, while a battery operated public address system blares out the tape recorded message for all to hear that there is an immunization campaign going on.                                       
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The encounter was ironic. I had just arrived in India through the invitation of the World Health Organization to help in the polio eradication efforts for the next three months. Three years ago, when we joined the Rotarians in UP during a National Immunization day, we asked the Rotarians of Uttar Pradesh (UP), the question: “What would help get every child vaccinated?” Their response was “Public address systems with batteries and tape recorders that could be used on Rickshaws to make the public aware of the immunization campaigns.” So we bought around 50 public address systems for the different Rotary Clubs scattered throughout the state of U.P. Now, three years latter we find the systems still working and benefiting the efforts to eradicate polio from India.

Never has India been so close to being able to eradicate polio. Only 33 cases have been identified this year, instead of the hundreds and thousands of cases in the past years. Eighteen (18) of these cases are in the western part of UP (see circle on map), where I have been assigned to help “finish the job.” Our success in stopping the transmission of polio by the end of this year will have a much needed moral boost on the other few remaining countries that are also on the verge of eradicating polio.

The numbers of those that have refused to allow their children to be immunized has lessened, but are still enough to allow the polio virus to survive. Special posters have been designed with pictures of Muslim clerics and leaders giving drops of polio vaccine to children. These are now displayed in large numbers in the areas where the Islamic religion is predominant. Many of the Mosques make public announcements of the campaign, enjoining the followers to have their children vaccinated.

The end is in sight. The major challenge is to motivate all our fatigued and weary vaccinators, supervisors and staff to “suck it in” during these next 6 months, and to double their efforts and commitment to reach every last child with the polio vaccine. Not last, or least is the challenge to convince the illiterate and apathetic public of the critical need of their cooperation, insuring that not one single child will be missed.

“Now, more than ever,
eradicate polio forever!”

Otto
oaustel@aol.com

Reporting from India - September 5, 2004:

“MISSING” CHILDREN

Their faces are not printed on milk cartons. Parents are not even aware that their children have been missed and are being searched for by the polio vaccinators. Thousands of committed teams are currently checking, rechecking and checking every house over again for any child that the house-to-house vaccinators might have missed. Unfortunately, some parents, who have heard and believe rumors that the vaccine causes sterility, will mislead the vaccinators deliberately and hide their children from them. They falsely tell them that there are no children under the age of 5 in the home.

Our greatest challenge is to break down the resistance of the uneducated and misinformed Muslim parents, who have heard rumors and believe that the vaccine will have an adverse effect on the children. Rotary enlists the help of young Muslim women who are willing to work with us in dealing with the uneducated Muslim parents, who refuse to have their children immunized. The young lady seen in the doorway of the picture is pleased to have been able to persuade the family of this house to have their child immunized.

Special “Vaccine Volunteer Promoters” have also been hired that are trained in presenting the correct story of polio immunization. During the past few months they have been able to convert almost 80% of the resisters into accepting the polio vaccine. Every last child is be found and protected with the Oral Polio Drops so that the evil, child crippling virus will be not able to survive our eradication efforts.

It is the Monsoon season and the rains are most unhelpful, forcing us to walk threw mud and sewage as we seek children in need of the Oral Polio Vaccine. In the slums of the city, where so many thousands live is squalor, the putrid odor of decaying substance along the sides of the streets shock our olfactory nerves. In the villages the wet buffalo dung releases its distinct nitrogenous smell and we are awed at how people can live under such circumstances, even greeting us with smiles. The buffalo lives in a close relationship with the family, often sharing a front room of the house. It provides great quantities of milk, dung (used for fuel) and pulls heavily laden carts

The problem of the of the monsoon season is not only the rains that it makes it very inconvenient for the house-to-house activities, but also the remaining stagnant ponds of water with sewage of stagnant. These enable the poliovirus to survive for much longer periods of time and provide more opportunity for the polio virus to spread.

It can be discouraging to hear reports of new cases of polio in UP when every resource seems to be utilized and such heroic efforts are being made to rid India of the polio virus. We are only encouraged by realizing that, even though the progress is not as fast as we had hoped, we are making progress and moving forward to a world free from the terror of polio.

I’ll share a picture of a couple of pictures of children that were initially “missed,” but were found by our search teams and successfully immunized. The dark ink on the fingernail of the left little finger is put there by the vaccinators to verify that the child has been vaccinated.