Tinstman tells Boulder Rotary polio is on its way out
BOULDER – "Polio eradication is progressing," Carl Tinstman, a Boulder resident who is a former manager with the United Nations, reported at the Friday, Sept. 29 meeting of the Boulder Rotary Club. Tinstman noted that Rotary International has been instrumental in the final push to eliminate polio worldwide.
Two billion children have been immunized so far, and polio exists today in only four countries: India, Nigeria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
Rotary's Polio Plus campaign began in 1988 at the Rotary International Convention in Philadelphia. At that time, polio cases existed in 125 countries. Since then, UNICEF, the World Health Organization, and the U.S. government's Center for Disease Control and Prevention have joined the effort. When the world is polio-free, it will be only the second time in history that a dread disease has been totally eradicated through immunization. Smallpox was the first.
Tinstman has been in charge of immunization projects in Darfur, Yemen, Sudan, and Somalia. The poverty-burdened countries presented myriad challenges for health workers -- a genocidal war in Darfur, political, sanitation and health risks, nomadic populations constantly moving. It took four years of work in Sudan to declare polio vanquished in 2001. Somalia is "ungovernable and dangerous," Tinstman said, but polio was eradicated there in 2007 for the second time.
Re-infection is always a possibility because the disease is "only a plane ride away," Tinstman said. Where there is active conflict, refugees carry diseases to other areas. Nigeria, for example, may spread polio to other parts of Africa because many people are fleeing the country. Tinstman said Nigeria will be the last country with polio because of political upheaval and violence.
Rotary International is involved in a $100 million fundraising campaign to finish this fight against polio and wipe it out completely.
Rotary’s gargantuan effort has been praised by the Wall Street Journal, which said the organization deserves a Nobel Prize, and also by its health partners.
Speaking at the RI convention in June, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan thanked Rotarians for their "steadfast commitment to ridding the world of an ancient disease that has destroyed so many childhoods and broken so many hearts.”
“Together," she said, "we will bring this to an end, forever."
-Reported by Carol Grever, Boulder Rotary Club
Contact: Sue Deans, 303-579-9580
For more information on Rotary, see www.boulderrotary.org or www.rotary.org.
BOULDER ROTARY CLUB
5350 Manhattan Circle, Suite 201 Boulder, Colorado, 80303-4272
303-554-7074 Rotary@wxwax.com
Fax 303-499-6714 www.BoulderRotary.org
Two billion children have been immunized so far, and polio exists today in only four countries: India, Nigeria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
Rotary's Polio Plus campaign began in 1988 at the Rotary International Convention in Philadelphia. At that time, polio cases existed in 125 countries. Since then, UNICEF, the World Health Organization, and the U.S. government's Center for Disease Control and Prevention have joined the effort. When the world is polio-free, it will be only the second time in history that a dread disease has been totally eradicated through immunization. Smallpox was the first.
Tinstman has been in charge of immunization projects in Darfur, Yemen, Sudan, and Somalia. The poverty-burdened countries presented myriad challenges for health workers -- a genocidal war in Darfur, political, sanitation and health risks, nomadic populations constantly moving. It took four years of work in Sudan to declare polio vanquished in 2001. Somalia is "ungovernable and dangerous," Tinstman said, but polio was eradicated there in 2007 for the second time.
Re-infection is always a possibility because the disease is "only a plane ride away," Tinstman said. Where there is active conflict, refugees carry diseases to other areas. Nigeria, for example, may spread polio to other parts of Africa because many people are fleeing the country. Tinstman said Nigeria will be the last country with polio because of political upheaval and violence.
Rotary International is involved in a $100 million fundraising campaign to finish this fight against polio and wipe it out completely.
Rotary’s gargantuan effort has been praised by the Wall Street Journal, which said the organization deserves a Nobel Prize, and also by its health partners.
Speaking at the RI convention in June, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan thanked Rotarians for their "steadfast commitment to ridding the world of an ancient disease that has destroyed so many childhoods and broken so many hearts.”
“Together," she said, "we will bring this to an end, forever."
-Reported by Carol Grever, Boulder Rotary Club
Contact: Sue Deans, 303-579-9580
For more information on Rotary, see www.boulderrotary.org or www.rotary.org.
BOULDER ROTARY CLUB
5350 Manhattan Circle, Suite 201 Boulder, Colorado, 80303-4272
303-554-7074 Rotary@wxwax.com
Fax 303-499-6714 www.BoulderRotary.org
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