This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
Administrator J. Brian Atwood
Rotary International Polio Eradication
The Legacy of Victory, A Winning Partnership to Eradicate Polio
Washington, D.C., May 14, 1996
U.S. Agency for International Development
When I was a child, polio hung over every summer's
activities like a dark thunder cloud. My immediate family
was fortunate -- we missed some movies and some longed-for
chances to go swimming on hot summer days, but none of us had
to suffer the agony of polio. None of us was forced to rely on
braces to walk or iron lungs to breathe.
But everyone in America during my childhood knew of
neighbors, friends or relatives who had died or had their lives
forever changed by polio.
In those days, a world free of polio in our lifetimes was
truly an impossible dream. The development of polio vaccines
was like a miracle. Now w
e are on the threshold of making that
impossible dream come true.
We got this far because a few visionary people had the
courage and the dogged persistence to attempt to rally a global
effort.
They were able to bring together a remarkable group of
partners -- the Task Force on Child Survival, the U.S. Committee
for UNICEF, the March of Dimes, the American Academy of
Pediatrics, the U.S. government and local and national
governments around the world, and that amazing army of
volunteers led by Rotary International.
I've spent enough time in developing countries not to be
surprised anymore when I visit an isolated village in South
America or Africa and find a well in the center of town with a
small plaque affixed to it. The plaque usually says that the well
was made possible by a Rotary Club in some small town in
Minnesota or Mississippi or Maine.
I've also run into a lot of Rotary scholars in my travels.
Both wells and scholars can be financed by a local civic club.
But driving a global scourge into extinction -- especially
when the vaccine to prevent that scourge has to be kept cold on
long trips to isolated villages days away from the nearest
refrigerator -- that is a gift of historic proportion.
Writing 150 years ago, Alexis de Tocqueville said that what
made democracy in America work was the willingness of
Americans to organize themselves voluntarily to solve problems.
I think he would be pretty impressed with the way Rotarians
around the world have organized themselves and helped galvanize
governments and international agencies.
Billions of children who will never know your names will
have reason to bless you for what you have done, for they will
never know the pain and crippling of polio. Because of what you
are doing, they will run and play freely. That is your reward.
After a time, generations of children around the world will
not even remember a time when everyone had to be immunized
against polio.
That is when even the most avid budget-cutters will
understand that impossible dreams pay off in real money. Once
polio is conquered, they can count the dividends every year
-- forever.
The danger is that -- as cases of polio become rare -- it will
be harder to enlist the additional help needed to finish the job.
Nations which have been polio-free for years have a
responsibility to continue to support this campaign until every
nation is polio-free. {I know some of you have attempted to get
additional support from the European Community, the
development banks and some of the wealthier Persian Gulf states.
We must continue these efforts.} The sooner we wipe out polio
everywhere, the sooner everyone can reap the full benefits.
A year ago we celebrated with you the victory over polio in
the Americas. I told you then about my pride that USAID was
one of the driving forces behind the eradication of polio in Latin
America and the Caribbean. We talked about the remarkable
partnership of national governments, international organizations
and the private sector that made this victory possible.
USAID is continuing to sustain that effort. We know that
dedicated public and private partners will have to keep up their
work in polio-free countries through immunizations and other
means well into the next century if we are to preserve the
progress we have made.
Shortly after we met last year, I was delighted to announce
that USAID-supported research had resulted in the successful
development of heat-sensitive vaccine vial monitors.
As you know, maintaining the cold-chain has always been a
critical element of polio eradication. Anyone who has seen a
nurse lugging a beat-up picnic cooler to an isolated village for an
immunization day when the temperature is 120 degrees knows
how fragile that cold-chain can be.
These monitors show when an individual vial of vaccine has
gotten too hot and is no longer good. The vial monitors are now
produced by a U.S. company and are in use worldwide. They
eliminate the necessity of throwing out vaccine because it might
have gotten too hot, saving $10 million annually in wasted
vaccines.
Our victory over polio in the Americas will not be complete,
however, until we achieve victory over polio for all the world's
inhabitants. Without a global victory, the fruits of our past
progress could still be lost.
In 1996 -- spurred by our honorees today -- USAID received
a Congressional directive that $20 million be used to extend our
polio eradication efforts.
Today, I want to tell you about some of the things we have
been able to do as part of the WORLDWIDE partnership,
mobilized by the continued energy and dedication of Rotary
International, other donors, and private volunteers worldwide.
We are working closely with international partners in South
and East Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, the Near East, and the
Central Asian Republics, where most of the world's remaining
polio cases occur.
The 1996 funding made it possible for USAID to provide a
$6.5 million grant to WHO/AFRO which supplemented resources
needed for polio eradication activities in 11 African countries.
USAID supported the implementation of National and Sub-National Immunization Days in 30 African countries. More
than 50 million children under the age of five were immunized.
This year over $12 million will go to WHO/AFRO to
finance polio eradication efforts in the same countries plus eight
others. This USAID grant will help support immunization days
and cold-chain logistics, as well as the introduction of disease
surveillance measures for polio and other diseases.
Another grant of $3 million will help UNICEF strengthen
and mobilize its vast local and community base to continue the
battle.
In addition to making grants, USAID also works directly
through its African missions to support country programs. In
Madagascar, Mozambique, and Tanzania, our missions helped
country partners with such projects as purchasing vaccines and
cold-chain equipment, conducting vaccine coverage surveys, and
training outreach workers in vaccine administration.
-- In Zambia, we helped develop a "fast chain" through which organizations like Coca-Cola lent vehicles for the transport
of vaccines to districts.
-- In the Central Asian Republics, USAID helped improve
vaccine delivery, saving millions of dollars.
-- In Russia we helped the Ministry of Health prepare video
clips on polio vaccination. These were the first news spots on
polio broadcast on Russian national television since the break up
of the Soviet Union.
-- In India, USAID participated in two rounds of National
Immunization Days, distributing over 200 million doses of
vaccine. This year approximately $4 million will be targeted to
increased surveillance and other polio-related efforts in India.
Thanks to support from Congress and our many partners in
the field, 1997 funding for polio eradication has increased,
particularly in the affected countries themselves, where USAID
has been able to leverage significant technical and financial
resources. These new funds are making it possible to step up
eradication activities.
We will work with our partners in 1997 to conduct national
or sub-national immunization days in 35 countries in Africa, eight
in Asia and eleven in the New Independent States -- to reach over
250 million children.
We will form new partnerships -- for instance, the Voice of
America and other international broadcasters. They will get the
message out about polio eradication to the most remote corners of
the globe -- in scores of languages.
Civil wars and the break-up of states have been the most
disturbing trends in this decade. The resulting chaos and mass
migrations, malnutrition, and the breakdown of health and other
services, creates ideal breeding grounds for disease.
Most routine health services have collapsed in countries like
Rwanda and Zaire. We will advocate days of tranquility this year
to allow immunizations to be administered in those countries. It
is doubly important to facilitate the participation of countries in
crisis in the global eradication effort.
In the future, as countries improve their capacity to plan and
conduct National Immunization Days, USAID will shift its focus
to increasing surveillance, community-level case detection, and
serving hard-to-reach populations, and supplying key research.
The impact of this remarkable campaign will continue long
after polio is eradicated worldwide. Together with our national
and international partners, USAID is helping communities around
the globe build sustainable health systems to care for the world's
children and attack a whole host of old and new diseases.
The polio eradication effort will leave a legacy of
sustainable immunization systems at local and district levels. It
will leave people with well-honed planning skills so countries can
continue to expand the impact of health programs. It will leave
in place surveillance systems -- poised to detect both well-known
and emerging diseases.
I hope that this victory will also leave behind the conviction
that if we can overcome all the problems necessary to beat polio,
we can overcome the obstacles to conquering other terrible
diseases.
I hope the knowledge, organizational and communication
techniques developed by volunteers around the world in this
campaign will not be put into mothballs.
Once polio is eradicated, I hope you will use your advocacy
skills to get both donors and host countries to provide additional
financial support for all programs that are crucial to children's
health. Food security, clean water and environmental clean-ups,
for example, are also essential.
Malaria and other infectious diseases will be on the agenda
for the first time when leaders of the world's wealthiest countries
hold the G-7 meeting in June. Malaria kills two million children
a year in Africa alone. I hope the example of what is being done
to conquer polio will inspire the G-7 to launch -- and finance
-- new efforts to control these other killers of children.
Together, we will win the battle over polio. We must not
underestimate the difficulties that remain We must not slacken
our efforts until we finish the job. But I believe that by the end
of the year 2000 the wild polio virus will not cause a single new
case of polio anywhere in the world.
The impossible dream of a polio-free world will be a reality.
When the last person is gone who remembers the braces, the
iron lungs and the suffering polio caused, the legacies of this
campaign will still be paying dividends.
This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
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Last Updated on: July 18, 2001
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