By Tammie Mulvey
Houlton Rotarian
HOULTON — Travis Glatter was the featured speaker April 28 at the Houlton Rotary Club. Glatter spoke on polio.
“We are ‘this close’ to ending polio,” he said. “Polio is a viral infectious disease spread from person to person via the fecal-oral route.”
There are three types of polio that are virulent and produce the same symptoms. Exposure to polio by infection or immunization produces immunity (but only to the specific type).
Contributed photo/Michael Clark
SPEAKER —Rotarian Travis Glatter, right, was the guest speaker at the Houlton Rotary Club Monday, April 28. Glatter spoke on the subject of polio. With him is Rotary President Lori Weston.
Most common is spinal polio where muscles (usually leg) become weak, floppy, poorly controlled and finally paralyzed. Polio is highly contagious. In endemic areas, wild polioviruses can infect virtually the whole human population. The incubation period is six to 20 days. Virus particles are excreted in the feces for several weeks. The disease is transmitted primarily via the fecal-oral route by ingesting contaminated food or water.
Rotary clubs take on a project to buy and help deliver polio vaccine to more than six million children in the Philippines. Rotary International launched PolioPlus, the first and largest internationally coordinated private-health initiative, with an initial pledge of US$120 million. Rotarians in the United States raised $247 million for PolioPlus, more than double their goal of $120 million. The World Health Assembly passed a resolution to eradicate polio, setting up the launch of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. More than 125 countries are polio-endemic.
The Western Hemisphere is declared polio-free. Rotarians, health workers and volunteers immunized. 165 million children in China and India in a single week.
A record 550 million children – almost one-tenth of the world’s population – receive the oral polio vaccine. The Western Pacific region, spanning from Australia to China, is declared polio-free. The Rotary Foundation raised US$119 million from its membership in a 12- month campaign.
