PRESQUE ISLE — Hundreds of purple pinkies were spotted throughout the community last Wednesday as people paid $1 to have volunteers paint their pinkie in support of Rotary International’s efforts to eradicate polio worldwide.
A crippling and potentially deadly infectious disease caused by a virus that spreads from person to person, polio invades the brain and spinal cord and can cause paralysis. Because polio has no cure, vaccination is the best way to protect against it and the only way to stop the disease from spreading.
Polio has not been a problem in the United States for many years, but this is not the case in several developing countries. In 1985, Rotary International began raising funds in an effort to eliminate the disease worldwide. By partnering with the World Health Organization and other government and private groups, Rotary International has achieved a 99 percent reduction of polio worldwide.
Sponsored by the Presque Isle Rotary Club and the University of Maine at Presque Isle, the Purple Pinkie Project, which was part of World Polio Day, raised funds to help out with that remaining 1 percent. Similar Purple Pinkie Projects have been held by Rotary Clubs around the country, with people donating $1 to have their pinkies marked with the same purple dye used when Rotary International conducts polio immunizations.
“The idea was to raise $1 at a time,” said Rachel Rice, who co-chaired the World Polio Day activities with Tim Doak. “One dollar is not a lot of money to give, so every single dollar that was raised through the Purple Pinkie Project is a symbol of one person who knows a little bit more about polio and polio eradication.”
The local Purple Pinkie Project raised more than $1,250.
Doak said there has been “some significant progress accomplished” in polio eradication since efforts began 27 years ago.
“In 1985 when the campaign started, there were 125 nations throughout the world in which polio was endemic. Good progress was made in a short time,” he said. “In 1994, the year that I became a Rotarian, the Americas were declared polio-free and the number of countries in which polio was endemic had been reduced from 125 down to 80.
“Great progress continued throughout the 1990s, and by 2000, that number had been reduced to 20 nations. By 2011, the number had been reduced to only four countries. This year it was announced that India, which was one of those four countries, was polio-free for the very first time,” said Doak. “Polio is still raging in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria. Those are countries that are very war torn and there are serious socio-economic challenges, and in many cases, there are religious and tribal beliefs against vaccinations. It’s an uphill battle and that remaining 1 percent is going to be the toughest, but we can do it.”
The estimate to rid polio from those three remaining countries is $700 million. Each vaccination costs 60 cents.
“That’s the reason that worldwide we’re having Purple Pinkie Projects to raise awareness and funds for this cause today,” Doak said.
As part of The Aroostook Medical Center’s 30th annual Boone Memorial Lecture entitled, End Polio Now, Steve Mazzerole of Caribou shared his personal experience with the disease.
“When I contracted polio I was 3 years old. My family was extremely poor; we lived in a three-bedroom shanty in Caribou. We didn’t have indoor plumbing … we had an outhouse out back,” he said. “Needless to say, education on polio was not out there. Because I was only 3, I didn’t go to school. My brothers and sisters did, they got the vaccine, I didn’t and I got polio.”
Mazzerole said he spent a year-and-a-half at the Hyde Home in Bath.
“My parents didn’t have the money, so they couldn’t come down from Caribou that often … maybe once a week if they were lucky,” he said, noting that he remembers being in an iron lung that was flown into Loring Air Force Base from Chicago. “We were all placed in these iron lungs and then transported down to Bath for recovery.
“Having polio has left its mark on me,” said Mazzerole. “When you’ve been paralyzed for 52 years, you learn all kinds of tricks and you get good at hiding your disability. I was afflicted in both my legs, my arm, my neck and my back. If I could wave a magic wand and redo my life and get vaccinated, would I do it? ‘Yes,’ I would do it, and I would also wave it to eradicate polio.”
Mazzerole, himself a Rotarian, joined the Caribou club because of its eagerness to eliminate polio. He then shared with audience members the names of some well-known polio survivors. They include President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Neil Young, Alan Alda, Mia Farrow, Donald Sutherland and Francis Ford Coppola.
As part of the annual Boone Memorial Lecture, Dr. Vatsala Kirtani, who was born in India, spoke about the disease in her native country.
“I grew up in a city, my parents were well off and I got vaccinated, but so many didn’t. You knew it was there, but it didn’t feel real … not until I was older,” said Kirtani. “Fortunately India is now polio-free, but that does not mean our work ends here as there’s always a danger there will be an outbreak due to international travel.
“People are at risk as long as polio exists,” she said. “That’s why we need to make people aware, raise money and bring the vaccine to affected countries. We need to fight back as humans.”
Leigh Cummings of Houlton, Rotary past district governor, said the organization has “come along way” since beginning the fight against polio decades ago.
“Rotary International can end polio because Rotary has Rotarians on the ground — who are trusted leaders in their communities — in each of those endemic countries. We have gone from a situation where — on average — a quarter million or more children were paralyzed each and every year,” he said. “We leveled out a few years ago at around 1,000 cases of polio per year. Last year at this time we were down to 341 cases of polio, and this year we’ve cut that down to 171 cases. Fortunately we’re in the end game. We’re seeing the numbers half each and every year, and the end of polio really, really is ‘this close.’”
During World Polio Day, posters, handouts and other informational materials on polio in Aroostook County and around the world were displayed throughout the Campus Center. In addition, UMPI’s Student Organization of Social Workers had an information table in the Owl’s Nest about polio’s impacts in Africa, Central America and Pakistan. A video about polio created by UMPI professional communication students also played on the e-bulletin boards around campus.
“We hope our Purple Pinkie Project will serve as a great reminder, long after each individual’s donation, of the real difference they’re helping us to make,” said Doak. “By partnering with us, each of them becomes a part of the solution to polio, and their purple pinkie will be their own personal reminder of one more child saved from the polio virus.”
For more information, log onto www.endpolionow.org.
