Editorial – The danger still lurks

The Philippines is not yet totally free from the threat of poliomyelitis, or polio for short, a highly infectious viral disease that may attack the central nervous system, especially of children, resulting in paralysis of certain parts of the body.
While the country had been declared polio-free years ago as a result of a worldwide immunization campaign called PolioPlus launched by Rotary International, there remains the danger of Filipino overseas workers (OFW) in countries where polio is still rampant contracting the virus and possibly contaminating locals upon their return to the country.
PolioPlus,  which was piloted in the Philippines in 1985, had been able to immunize two billion children in developing countries.
However, Joseph Michael “Yumi” Espina, past district governor of Rotary District 3860 in the Visayas and Mindanao, said four developing countries in the world remain to be polio-endemic. These are Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan and India.
“There’s no telling that any of the thousands of contract workers will return home bearing the virus with them,” Espina warned, explaining why it is important that the world’s 1.2 million Rotarians, as well as altruistic non-Rotarians, to be able to contribute to The Rotary Foundation whose funds are used in worldwide programs to combat underdevelopment, hunger and disease, especially poliomyelitis.
Espina explained the so-called Rotary $200 Million Challenge wherein Rotarians are called upon to raise $200 million to match two grants totaling $355 million by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for the eradication of polio.
According to statistics available in the Internet, Rotarians and their allies thus far have been able to meet the $200-million challenge more than halfway. As of last month, they were able to raise some $133 million and the figures are growing each passing day.
Those of us who know how debilitating polio is to a child’s afflicted body and, consequently, to his future certainly hope  that the Rotarians and the rest of the caring world can raise the needed amount and thus help in the total eradication of poliomyelitis  from the face of the earth.

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