Bedford Rotary President Traci Blido and teammate Rotarian Sarah Saville of Norfolk administer the polio vaccine drops to dozens of children in a rural school in India.
As part of National Immunization Days aimed at vaccinating over 172 million children under the age of 5 across India, a Forest resident and Bedford Rotary Club President, Traci Blido, joined a Rotary International team of 64 volunteers from Canada, Switzerland, Australia and the United States to give Polio vaccinations in rural India in late February, 2015.
This team joined more than 100,000 other international volunteers from Japan, Britain, Belgium and France, along with local volunteers and health officials, to carry out the two-day national campaign.
Blido travelled with the team to Nuh, Haryana, India about 43 miles from Delhi. Nuh, a predominately Muslim community, endures ongoing poverty and lack of basic public services, making it a high-risk area for diseases such as polio.
Blido was assigned to a specific village in Nuh for two days where she and several other Rotarians and health workers, were responsible to identify and vaccinate a total of 330 children within 48 hours. In the first day, the families and children came to them at a community area where they were stationed to give kids five and under the two drops of polio vaccine before sending them on their way. The next day, they went door to door in the community, marking the outside of each house or tent visited to ensure that every child was immunized in that village.
“The mission can be summarized in two words,” said Blido. “Two drops.” The vaccine is administered by two drops of vaccine in the mouth, making it possible for non-medical staff to administer. “It was amazing to see how organized this Rotary mission was to immunize all kids throughout India in a matter of days.”
Polio is a life-threatening and crippling virus, which largely attacks children under the age of five years of age. It invades the nervous system and can cause irreversible paralysis in a matter of hours. There is no cure for it, but it can be prevented with the polio vaccine.
Thanks to Rotary International’s commitment to end polio worldwide, India has gone from 874 new polio cases in 2007 down to no cases for the first time last year in the country. “It’s critical to have zero new cases for several years in a row before India can rest on being Polio free long-term,” Blido explained. “We need to continue the fight to end polio until it’s stamped out worldwide.”
There are still three countries where new polio cases are reported each year, Nigeria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Eradication efforts in Pakistan have been hit by opposition from militants and attacks on immunization teams that have claimed 71 lives since December 2012.
http://endpolio.org/
This team joined more than 100,000 other international volunteers from Japan, Britain, Belgium and France, along with local volunteers and health officials, to carry out the two-day national campaign.
Blido travelled with the team to Nuh, Haryana, India about 43 miles from Delhi. Nuh, a predominately Muslim community, endures ongoing poverty and lack of basic public services, making it a high-risk area for diseases such as polio.
Blido was assigned to a specific village in Nuh for two days where she and several other Rotarians and health workers, were responsible to identify and vaccinate a total of 330 children within 48 hours. In the first day, the families and children came to them at a community area where they were stationed to give kids five and under the two drops of polio vaccine before sending them on their way. The next day, they went door to door in the community, marking the outside of each house or tent visited to ensure that every child was immunized in that village.
“The mission can be summarized in two words,” said Blido. “Two drops.” The vaccine is administered by two drops of vaccine in the mouth, making it possible for non-medical staff to administer. “It was amazing to see how organized this Rotary mission was to immunize all kids throughout India in a matter of days.”
Polio is a life-threatening and crippling virus, which largely attacks children under the age of five years of age. It invades the nervous system and can cause irreversible paralysis in a matter of hours. There is no cure for it, but it can be prevented with the polio vaccine.
Thanks to Rotary International’s commitment to end polio worldwide, India has gone from 874 new polio cases in 2007 down to no cases for the first time last year in the country. “It’s critical to have zero new cases for several years in a row before India can rest on being Polio free long-term,” Blido explained. “We need to continue the fight to end polio until it’s stamped out worldwide.”
There are still three countries where new polio cases are reported each year, Nigeria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Eradication efforts in Pakistan have been hit by opposition from militants and attacks on immunization teams that have claimed 71 lives since December 2012.
http://endpolio.org/
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