If people like Brian Finley have their way, World Polio Day will become a thing of the past in a few years time.
The district chair of the Rotary Club's End Polio Now campaign was in Prince George on Monday - the day before World Polio Day as designated by the international service club is held - to give an update on Rotarians' quest to eradicate the disease.
How close is it? About the distance between a thumb and an outstretched index finger by Finley's estimation.
"We're getting close," he declared while speaking to about 100 members from the city's three Rotary Clubs.
The highly-infectious disease mainly affects children under five years old, and for about one in 200 who contract the ailment, it will lead to paralysis and, for about 20 per cent of them, an early death. Anyone who was alive in the 1940s, '50s or '60s will remember images of youngsters living out their days inside "iron lungs" because they could no longer breath on their own.
Although part of life for centuries, there were major outbreaks in the 20th century, peaking at about 500,000 cases a year worldwide in the late 1940s and 1950s. But in 1956, Dr. Jonas Salk developed a vaccine made out of the dead virus. While it could only be delivered through an inoculation, a further breakthrough was made in 1961 when Dr. Albert Sabin developed a "live" oral vaccine that could be given by untrained volunteers.
While progress had been made in North America and Europe, just 20 per cent of the world's children were being inoculated against polio by the late 1970s.
"The problem was two-fold," Finley said. "The less-developed countries couldn't afford to buy the vaccine and secondly they had no system in place to deliver it to those children who needed it."
But in 1977, another disease, small pox, was eradicated using vaccines, raising the possibility the same could be done for polio. Two years later, Rotary launched an effort to immunize six million children in the Philippines and eradicate polio from that country.
Following on the success in that country and elsewhere, Rotary broadened its horizon. In 1985, the movement made eradicating polio around the world its number one humanitarian priority and launched the PolioPlus campaign, the "plus" because it included vaccines against other diseases like measles, diphtheria and whooping cough and supplying vitamins to those in need.
Like Finley indicated, Rotary is getting close to reaching its goal. In 2016, there were 37 cases worldwide.
"But challenges remain," he said.
No sooner had Nigeria been declared polio free than three cases emerged in the northern part of the African country where Boko Haram, an Islamic extremist group allied with ISIS, holds sway.
"That area had been too dangerous for polio workers to go to," Finley said. "And the strain that they found had been circulating in that area for four or five years, so it shows how important (surveillance) in finding that virus actually is."
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the two other countries where cases have been uncovered. Finley pointed to Ethiopia and Syria as two other potential trouble spots.
"These places where the polio virus still exists are some of the most dangerous and remote places in the world," he said and added that over 100 polio workers have been assassinated.
Nonetheless, he said over 400 million children in 70 countries were vaccinated last year.
"We're are getting closer to our goal but there's still much to do," Finley said. "Whether the last case of polio occurs next month or next year, there will still be three more years of vaccination campaigns and continued surveillance before we can be satisfied that we have done the job of eradicating polio."
For every year the disease is not eradicated, Finley said $1 billion US is needed to deliver the vaccine, and as it stands, there is a $1.5-billion shortfall in the campaign. But at the Rotary International convention earlier this year, nations and organizations pledged $1.2 billion to the cause.
Rotarians vowed to raise $150 million over the next three years with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation agreeing to commit a further $450 million, or $3 for every dollar raised by Rotary. Broken down, that works out to $2,500 per club or about $90 per member.
"It represents a cup of coffee from Starbucks or Timmy's every week," Finley noted.
The city's three Rotary Clubs committed $7,650.
