Rotary Fights Polio around the Globe

From 1916 — the first well-documented epidemic — to the middle of the 21st century, polio captivated and terrified American families. That was until a mass vaccination campaign, “the largest public health experiment in American history,” inoculated the public and eased fears that children, mostly, would contract the virus that caused paralysis and sometimes death. [1] In 1954 Jonas Salk developed the first vaccination against polio and launched a trial to inoculate children. Americans were on board. A Gallup poll at the time found that more American were aware of the polio vaccine trials than knew "the full name of the President of the United States." [2]

Idaho Falls Post Register, August 29, 1971

By the 1970s, polio had been largely eradicated from the United States. So much so that in 1971 a column in the Idaho Falls Post Register stressed that the polio vaccine is “not obsolete.” [3] “Public health experts are now concerned because, as polio has all but disappeared, children are being left without inoculation,” it said. While the virus was contained in the United States and other developed countries, the same wasn’t true across the world. In the 1980s, Rotary International, a service organization for business and professional people, launched Polio-Plus, a campaign to rid the world of polio by vaccinating children in underdeveloped countries, where, at the time, up to 500,000 polio cases were reported annually. [4] Rotary International raised funds to vaccinate children in countries like the Philippines. There, by 1987, the organization claimed to have largely eradicated polio. The same year, 10 million Mexican children were given a vaccine through Polio-Plus. [5]

Idaho Rotarians joined the effort, launching fundraising campaigns that continued into the 21st century. Two years after Polio-Plus launched, Eastern Idaho Rotarians sought to raise $106,000 over three years, a fraction of the $120 million the larger organization hoped to collect to reach its goal of eliminating polio by 2005.[6] “This is genuinely a people-to-people program and not a government responsibility,” Raymond Pullen, southern Idaho fundraising coordinator, told Rotary members at a 1987 meeting in Idaho Falls. Idahoans weren’t just raising funds for the cause. Ketchum residents Mark and Margaret Stewart in 1985 travelled to multiple African countries, where part of their relief mission involved helping to procure refrigerators for polio vaccines. [7]

Efforts of Rotary International and other organizations were largely successful. In 1996, there were only 3,500 documented cases of polio worldwide. [8] But campaigns to ensure parents stayed on top of their childrens’ immunizations continued. The Idaho Press-Tribune in Nampa covered an immunization event in 1996 meant to encourage vaccines. The newspaper reported, “Because of the decreased rate of diseases, there has been a false sense of security for parents who don't realize the importance of immunizations to prevent the wide spread rise in diseases,” while adding a troubling example: “Idaho topped the nation in measles cases in 1991 with 465 cases.” [9] Rotary International has continued to raise funds for polio eradication in recent years. Each year on World Polio Day — an annual event to commemorate the birth of Jonas Salk — Rotary International hosts fundraisers. By 2018, Rotary International had raised $1.8 billion, and the incidence of polio had decreased by more than 99.9 percent, from about 350,000 cases a year to 22 cases in 2017.

Ryan Suppe, June 20, 2021

Oshinsky, David, “Miracle Workers,” American Heritage Winter 2010, Vol. 59 Issue 4, p 85-87
Oshinsky, “Miracle Workers,” 85
Freese, Arthur S, “The Doctor Lets You In,” Post Register, Aug. 29, 1971.
Associated Press, “Rotary Honors Sabin,” Post Register, May 28, 2985.
Post Register, “Rotarians Launch Polio Campaign,” Post Register, Nov. 15, 1987.
Post Register, “Rotary to Begin Fund Drive,” Post Register, July 9, 1987.
Post Register, “Ketchum Couple to Speak About Ethiopian Journey,” Post Register, May 31, 1985.
Hoyt, Melanie, “Child immunization program kicks off,” Idaho Press-Tribune, April 30, 1999.
Galyean, Marie, “Nampa Hoedown set Nov. 17; Rotary fights polio,” Idaho Press-Tribune, Nov. 4, 2018.

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