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What is polio and why should we care? Those were essentially the two questions Dr. Richard Denton posed to the audience gathered at Greater Sudbury City Hall.

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Denton is a Sudbury resident, a retired physician, a former mayor of Kirkland Lake and a Rotarian for many years.

“I joined Rotary to meet and network with other like-minded people in the community and to serve above all else,” he said. “As a doctor I took care of my patients, as the former mayor of Kirkland Lake I took care of the community, and as a Rotary member we take care of the world. »

Rotary members have worked to eradicate polio for 35 years. Rotary has contributed $2.1 billion to this cause and helped protect three billion children.

The Rotary Club of Sudbury marked World Polio Day at Tom Davies Square. Mayor Paul Lefebvre delivered a proclamation and the Rotary centennial flag was raised.

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“We need peace and trust to proceed with vaccinations,” Denton noted. “As with smallpox before it, the goal is to eradicate polio. It can be done. There have been no cases of smallpox since the early 1980s.

“Polio mainly affects children. There is no cure for polio. We can prevent it with vaccinations.

In these three short sentences, Denton explains why, in 1979, Rotary International joined forces to tackle this cause. There is reason to rejoice: “There were around 350,000 cases of paralytic polio worldwide in 1988. This year we are down to 54 worldwide, 32 in Pakistan and 22 in Afghanistan. We are winning in eliminating polio…

“We want polio to be written into the history books. »

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Major polio epidemics occurred in the 19th and 20th centuries.

In Canada, a major outbreak occurred in 1937. The 1953 outbreak saw the number of cases reach almost 9,000 and 500 deaths were reported. Canadian mothers kept their children away from pools and swimming pools, fearing the iron lung machine could be their child’s fate. You may have an elderly parent with polio; they usually walk with a limp.

“Polio was eradicated in the Americas in 1994, in the Western Pacific in 2000, in Europe in 2002, in Southeast Asia in 2014 and in Africa in 2020,” Denton said.

The illness usually begins with general symptoms such as fever, headache, nausea, fatigue, muscle pain and spasms. Exposure to polio can lead to limb paralysis, respiratory failure, cardiac collapse and even death.

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In August, news of Gaza’s first polio case in 25 years sparked a warning in the global health care community. A 10-month-old, unvaccinated baby now has a paralyzed leg.

War-torn areas – such as Gaza – often have to close their clinics, and with the destruction of sanitation and drinking water systems, fecal-oral transmission of diseases increases.

Poor hygiene or drinking contaminated water is likely the cause of the Gaza case, according to an opinion piece by Mohammed Aghaalkurdi in The New York Times. This single case triggered a response by the World Health Organization (WHO recommends that all children be vaccinated) to attempt to vaccinate 640,000 Palestinian children. Some 559,161 have received the first dose.

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Typically, patients receive two or three doses a few weeks apart. Vaccination can be oral or by injection. The oral vaccine is easier to administer and does not require specialized training or sterile syringes. The injectable version should be stored in the refrigerator.

“This limits its use because it must be administered by doctors and kept cold. The first dose protects 90 percent of patients and the third booster dose protects 99 percent of recipients,” Denton said.

The history of the campaign was marked by several stages. The first successful method was established by Hilary Koprowski in 1950; a safer method was developed by American physician, virologist and biomedical scientist Jonas Salk, with massive field testing in 1952.

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In 1962, Dr. Albert Sabin developed an oral attenuated (live weakened) vaccine. “The newer versions of the vaccine make this even rarer,” Denton said.

The global elimination of highly contagious polio is a noble cause and, to date, the program has been very successful. Denton explained how polio – particularly RNA poliovirus types 2 and 3 – has been eliminated as a threat. “Wild polio is now mainly confined to just two countries; Pakistan and Afghanistan. Last year there were only 12 cases, six in each of these two countries.

Local businessman Boris Naneff is also a Rotarian. “I’ve been a member since 2000…and my dad was a member before that. Rotary was the first organization to undertake the elimination of polio worldwide. I am proud to be part of an international organization that does good.

Wayne Fraser, president-elect of the Sudbury Rotary group, said of polio eradication: “It’s something we can all get behind. We are continuing this initiative.

Lise Dutrisac is a past club president and former Rotary district governor. She has been part of the local club for 30 years. “What brought me to Rotary?” I have always worked for the good of the community. Rotary seemed like the perfect solution. Eliminating polio seemed like a massive undertaking, but look where we are. »

The Local Journalism Initiative is made possible with funding from the federal government.

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