Stop Polio Benefit dinner Nov. 8

For anybody that wants to support a good cause, I have tickets available at my office for the Flying Crutches Stop Polio Now dinner November 8, Saturday at Robertos in Ajijic 5-8pm. Tickets are 300 pesos and include dinner and a drink.

See you there!

Just a note:

But didn't Dr. Jonas Salk do that in the 50's??

Just sayin eh!!!

SnowDaddy wrote:Just a note:

But didn't Dr. Jonas Salk do that in the 50's??

Just sayin eh!!!

unfortunately there are still outbreaks of polio in certain parts of the world periodically

SnowDaddy wrote:Just a note:

But didn't Dr. Jonas Salk do that in the 50's??

Just sayin eh!!!

In 1954, Dr. Jonas Salk gave us a useful tool - the first polio vaccine. In the early 1960s Dr. Sabin gave us another useful tool - the oral vaccine. But having the tools is not enough. We have to keep using them until the last case of polio disappears from the earth. If we get complacent and slack off on vaccinating, the polio virus can make a comeback.

We didn't stop polio yet, we just beat it back a whole lot. Let's finish the job.

Traveller wrote:

SnowDaddy wrote:Just a note:

But didn't Dr. Jonas Salk do that in the 50's??

Just sayin eh!!!

In 1954, Dr. Jonas Salk gave us a useful tool - the first polio vaccine. In the early 1960s Dr. Sabin gave us another useful tool - the oral vaccine. But having the tools is not enough. We have to keep using them until the last case of polio disappears from the earth. If we get complacent and slack off on vaccinating, the polio virus can make a comeback.

We didn't stop polio yet, we just beat it back a whole lot. Let's finish the job.

Really!!! I was not aware of that. I had a friend that was stricken with polio, way back when I was just a tyke. Thought that dreaded affliction had been taken care of once and for all with the Salk Vaccine.

So how many tickets will you guys buy? I will be there too

I was born in the 60s, and I had polio. Was told it was a rare strain. Didn't realize there were still outbreaks. Wish I could afford to participate.

Tony_In_Mexico wrote: Wish I could afford to participate.

You can! If 300 pesos for the dinner is too steep, you can make any size donation at any time through Rotary. Or you can join the fight in other ways, by educating yourself and other people about the Stop Polio campaign. This website has loads of information.
http://www.endpolio.org/
It only costs 60 cents to vaccinate a child for life! And if you donate through Rotary, the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation will match that donation 2 to 1.

i, too, did not realize that polio was still around. I remember, in the 1950's, being told that I could not go in a public swimming pool (don't know what that was about) and having my friend Nicki Sedevi, who was the local grocer's daughter, walk across her living room and stumble, and the next thing we knew, she was diagnosed with polio and could not walk without braces. It was a scary era, and a true horror for some families. I am going to donate!

Thanks, JayBear!
And thanks, Intercasa, for selling tickets and for opening this conversation.

Have there been any polio cases in Mexico recently?

Polio was endemic in Mexico up to the late 1980s. I haven't been able to find the exact date of the last Mexican case, but the last case in the Americas was in Peru in 1991.

Rotary stepped into the battle in 1979 with a massive vaccination campain in the Phillipines. In 1985, Rotary International launched PolioPlus, the first and largest internationally coordinated private-sector support of a public health initiative. In 1988, the World Health Assembly (the decision-making body of World Health Organisation) announced the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Polio was endemic in 125 countries; only 71 were completely polio-free. Scroll down on this page for a map of the situation in 1988.http://www.endpolio.org/about-polio

Today polio is endemic in only three countries - Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria - with seven other countries reporting cases in 2014. In 2013, there were 416 reported cases in the entire world. So far this year, there have been only 247. The statistics are here  http://polioeradication.org/Dataandmonitoring/Poliothisweek.aspx

There was a setback in 2012 when polio showed up in Somalia and in Kenyan refugee camps along the Somali border. Mass emergency vaccinations brought those outbreaks under control. Unfortunately there's been an increase in cases in Pakistan. On the plus side, there was a major victory in March 2014 when India was officially certified polio-free.

The battle is 99% over. But that pesky little 1% can come back to bite us any time - it's always only a plane ride away, and people are getting careless with vaccination because we have forgotten how horrible polio can be. So it is absolutely imperative that we not slack off until the job is done. We have to keep hammering away at polio through education and vaccination until we hit zero cases world-wide.

Plus, there is Post Polio Syndrome attacking polio survivors decades later. I personally know three people in my age group suffering from this debilitating condition.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/post-polio-syndrome/basics/definition/con-20021725

I believe Joni Mitchell the Singer is suffering from the post polio condition.  Sad part is unless something has changed not moving around much is the treatment.

See you folks at the benefit!

Z

The people I know with PPS have good days and bad days--at least at the stages they are now in. They try to stay as active as the disease allows them to be on any given day.