Polio just a 'plane ride away'
A 22-year-old Pakistani student was
released from an Australian hospital on 9 August, after recovering from the
polio virus. A national health alert was issued in Australia on 13 July after
the student was diagnosed with polio, the first case of the virus in the country
in 21 years.
Another case of polio was also detected
in Chad last month. Rotary’s
PolioPlus Partners program quickly released US$241,000 to support urgent
preventive immunization activities in neighboring Sudan, amid continued
political unrest in the country.
International PolioPlus Committee Chair
Bob Scott calls the outbreaks a "wake-up call."
"It prove[s]
beyond a doubt that polio in your polio-free country is just a plane ride away,"
Scott says. "It's essential to continue with the PolioPlus program."
The student contracted the disease
while visiting his native Pakistan, one of the four remaining polio-endemic
countries. He experienced symptoms, including initial paralysis, and recovered
at Melbourne's Box Hill Hospital. He was isolated from the community until he
tested negative for the virus.
After learning about the case from
Jenny Horton, a Rotary club member who consults for the World Health
Organization on the
Global Polio Eradication Initiative in Pakistan, Melbourne-area Rotarians
reacted quickly to support the student's recovery. Arrangements were made
to provide the student with new clothes, since his clothing had been confiscated
in case it carried the virus. Jennifer Coburn, of the Rotary Club of Mont Albert
& Surrey Hills, Victoria, went to visit the patient in isolation, lifting his
spirits by bringing him books, puzzles, and the daily newspaper.
"This is a definite and very easy way
to assist a person in need of support," says Coburn, noting how far the student
is from his family, and the intense media scrutiny he had been under after the
alert was issued. "He is really delighted that he is receiving support from
Rotary. The need for human interaction is so important." | 
The Rotary Club of Jenkintown has been dedicated to
"Service Above Self"
since 1924
