Lt. Gov. David M. Apatang and Rotarians pose for a photo at the Crowne Plaza Resort Saipan.
THE Rotary Club of Saipan and Lt. Gov. David M. Apatang signed a proclamation on Tuesday honoring World Polio Awareness Day, which falls on Oct. 24.
Past President Dr. Peter Gregor then educated his fellow Rotarians about polio.
Rotary International, the parent organization of the local Rotary Club, is a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. The initiative aims to interrupt poliovirus transmissions in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the only two countries where polio remains endemic. It also aims to stop transmission of variant poliovirus by preventing outbreaks around the world. Variant poliovirus still occurs and can spread to populations around the world.
According to Gregor, the Western Pacific has been declared polio-free since Oct. 29, 2000.
He said there is no drug to cure poliovirus once a person becomes infected. The only treatment is to vaccinate against the virus.
Gregor said Rotary International became involved with polio eradication in 1979 with a five-year program to deliver millions of polio vaccines to the Philippines, Haiti, and elsewhere.
Gregor stressed the importance of being vaccinated to prevent polio.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, most adults in the United States are vaccinated from polio as children. Doctors use the inactivated polio vaccine, a kind of shot normally administered in four doses when a baby is two months old, four months old, six to 18 months old, and four to six years old.
In his presentation, Gregor mentioned that outside of the United States, some countries use the oral polio vaccine. This vaccine contains a weakened, yet still living, form of the virus. It triggers an immune response in the patient and is then shed via the patient’s waste. However, in places such as Nigeria, where there is poor sewage management, the shed virus can mutate into vaccine-derived poliovirus. When unimmunized people come in contact with the sewage, they can become infected.
This is why Gregor stresses proper immunization.
The Rotary Club of Saipan’s most recent fundraiser in support of polio eradication efforts was held on Oct. 18 when Rotarians hosted a two-hour long Zumba “Dance-A-Thon” fundraiser at the Garapan Roundhouse.
