This month, PolioPlus. I was going to start with Afghanistan but events have moved too quickly. Will just comment that we have only located one case of wild polio virus in Afghanistan [and only one in Pakistan] this year and certainly up to the end of May our partnership was active. In May there were 712 739 children vaccinated using 307 permanent transit sites and 15 cross border vaccination points in Afghanistan.
 
Back to the beginning. In the 1970s some Rotary leaders thought that we had matured enough to undertake some “corporate” projects rather than stay with each club being totally independent. 
We had an ally in UNICEF with whom Rotary had worked often so Rotary applied to WHO seeking recognition in 1985 and it was granted. The hard work was about to begin! 
 
In the 1970s some Rotary leaders thought that we had matured enough to undertake some “corporate” projects rather than stay with each club being totally independent. 
 
Clem Renouf, who was guest speaker at our club 50th Celebration, was particularly vocal about Rotary’s ability to do something larger and he was criticised for it. Clem held strong and the Health, Hunger and Humanity programme was introduced. Clem asked a prominent US Pediatrician what Rotary could do and was told that a new oral vaccine would allow the eradication of polio. Smallpox has just been eradicated at a cost of around $100 000 so polio should not be overly expensive. Rotary approached the World Health Organisation to seek a partnership and we were told that while eradication was now possible, it was logistically impossible to put two drops of vaccine in the mouths of all the world’s children.
 
Rotary decided that we would run a polio eradication campaign to prove it was possible and the first 3H programme, to eradicate polio in the Philippines, began on September 29, 1979. It gained tremendous support. Manufacturers gave some free vaccine [we bought the rest!], airlines flew supplies into the Philippines pro bono, there was publicity internationally, and a five year programme was completed in three.
RI got excited by this and in February 1982 adopted a resolution to eradicate polio by our Centenary in 2005. WHO was still not as enthusiastic. At a social function at the World Health Assembly in 1984, the Director General of WHO was blunt. He said that volunteer organisations had approached WHO like this before but do-gooders make promises but fail to follow through. So, Rotary, we appreciate your interest but would like you to go home.