[D9640general] [eFlash_Rotary] Digest Number 689

[Garry & Anne Krischock]

 1341; Polio just a 'plane ride away' 

Posted by: "Sunil K Zachariah" sunilkzach at yahoo.co.uk   sunilkzach 

Fri Aug 10, 2007 2:38 am (PST) 



Polio just a 'plane ride away'

By Vanessa N. Glavinskas 
Rotary International News 

A 22-year-old Pakistani student was released from an Australian 
hospital today, 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."

Courtesy: eFlash_Rotary
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