Rotary Happenings: Rotarians hear about polio from survivor
How many people do you know who have had and survived polio? Is that disease even around anymore? Former interim President and Collaboratory Chief Executive Officer Dr. Michael V. Martin, who was the guest speaker at a recent Sanibel-Captiva Rotary Club meeting, is a polio survivor and thriver.
In 1952, when he was 5 years old living in Minnesota, he contracted polio, also known as infantile paralysis, and spent four months in the hospital wing with other polio victims. Martin survived with not too many long-term effects, considering the alternatives, and came away with many reflections and experiences that he would have otherwise not had. As an adult, he recognizes the outreaching benefits of organizations such as Rotary, the international Global Polio Eradication Initiative and March of Dimes, which paid the bill for his family who were impoverished.
In 1988, Rotary, the World Health Organization, UNICEF and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention created the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, which was joined in 2007 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to end polio. Since 2013, the foundation has matched every $1 Rotary commits to polio eradication 2-to-1, up to $35 million per year. With matching funds from the foundation, Rotary has contributed more than $1.6 billion to end polio. It has reduced the number of polio cases by 99.9% and helped more than 2.5 billion children with the vaccine. There are only two countries in the world where polio still exists, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The Sanibel-Captiva Rotary Club meets on Fridays at 8 a.m. at The Community House, at 2173 Periwinkle Way, Sanibel, with a Zoom option also available. For more information, visit sanibelrotary.org or www.facebook.com/sancaprotary.