My middle school was named after Jonas Salk – and all I heard about when I was going to school there was how he developed the vaccine that eradicated polio. Years later when I was at the UN, I remember seeing a clock in the lobby of the UN building counting down the eradication of polio throughout the world based on the number of vaccinations administered, and realized how little of the story of polio I had been told about as a child.
Rotary International funds a program whereby the oral polio vaccine (much cheaper to administer than the injection) is administered once a month in the areas in India most plagued by polio, including the state of Uttar Pradesh. So one Sunday in September, I had a chance to travel to Uttar Pradesh with some of the other fellows to a Muslim town in UP where stalls were set up on the street to administer the oral vaccine to children under the age of 5. In order to fully eradicate the disease in a community, every child under the age of 5 must be fully vaccinated. Unfortunately, similar to the reception anti-retroviral drugs have received in many parts of Africa, there are some in these Muslim communities who believe the polio vaccine is a conspiracy of Hindus trying to wipe out Muslim men in India. As a result, some families will hide their sons on vaccination days, but allow their daughters to get vaccinated. A weird twist of events given that the trend in India is female infanticide. The volunteers of this program, thus, vigorously focus their efforts in these communities, both by setting up these stalls and by going door to door to make sure as many children are covered as possible.
I had the incredible opportunity to actually place two drops of the oral polio vaccine into a little boy’s mouth. (He was not very happy about it!) Our being there did cause quite a stir in the neighborhood with all the children wanting to have their pictures taken on our digital cameras. Normally, I hate making a spectacle of myself in a foreign country, but this was one time I didn’t mind, as it drew more children to the stalls!
Rotary International funds a program whereby the oral polio vaccine (much cheaper to administer than the injection) is administered once a month in the areas in India most plagued by polio, including the state of Uttar Pradesh. So one Sunday in September, I had a chance to travel to Uttar Pradesh with some of the other fellows to a Muslim town in UP where stalls were set up on the street to administer the oral vaccine to children under the age of 5. In order to fully eradicate the disease in a community, every child under the age of 5 must be fully vaccinated. Unfortunately, similar to the reception anti-retroviral drugs have received in many parts of Africa, there are some in these Muslim communities who believe the polio vaccine is a conspiracy of Hindus trying to wipe out Muslim men in India. As a result, some families will hide their sons on vaccination days, but allow their daughters to get vaccinated. A weird twist of events given that the trend in India is female infanticide. The volunteers of this program, thus, vigorously focus their efforts in these communities, both by setting up these stalls and by going door to door to make sure as many children are covered as possible.
I had the incredible opportunity to actually place two drops of the oral polio vaccine into a little boy’s mouth. (He was not very happy about it!) Our being there did cause quite a stir in the neighborhood with all the children wanting to have their pictures taken on our digital cameras. Normally, I hate making a spectacle of myself in a foreign country, but this was one time I didn’t mind, as it drew more children to the stalls!
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