Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Polio is historically a devastating disease, one of the most dreaded childhood illnesses in human history. Highly contagious, polio caused widespread paralysis and death in Europe and the United States of America during the 19th and 20th centuries. Affecting the central nervous system, polio can cause deformities, muscle weaknesses and flaccid paralysis. It is as debilitating as it was endemic throughout the early decades of the 1900s, causing the great race to find a vaccine.

Many of the medical initiatives that we take for granted in the Western world today were implemented out of necessity for fighting the seriousness of polio epidemics. Intensive care units had their origins in fighting polio. Before the 1950s, hospitals had little capacity for respiratory assistance for patients and the first respiratory centre opened to treat severe cases of polio, leading to the first intensive care unit opening in Copenhagen in 1953. As we all know today, intensive care units are integral parts of our hospital systems, saving countless lives every year. Further, the roots of medical philanthropy began during the polio epidemics. Grassroots fundraising was hardly heard of before these outbreaks of polio. Rehabilitation programs were introduced to help survivors and polio survivor support groups have been instrumental in advocating for disability rights. Clearly, it is a disease which has changed not only the lives of those affected and their families but also our entire Western culture.

A vaccine was developed in the 1950s and has reduced polio cases in the Western world from hundreds of thousands every year to just handfuls. Given that in 1952, 58,000 cases of polio were reported in the United States alone, this vaccine was a serious and welcome breakthrough. In 1988, this vaccine was instrumental in the global campaign to eradicate polio led by the World Health Organisation, UNICEF and Rotary International. These organisations, collaborating with governments and local communities around the world, have seen this campaign help reduce polio cases from 350,000 reported in 1988 to just 1,349 in 2010. Additionally, polio endemic countries have been reduced from 125 to just four. These figures mean that polio has been reduced by 99 per cent since 1988. It is now a disease of which young people in Western nations are almost unaware.

These changes would not have happened if Rotary International and its partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative had not taken up the cause. They have worked relentlessly for the past 23 years to fight polio and, as the figures previously mentioned indicate, they are getting very close to achieving their goal. Rotary International's 1.2 million volunteers took up the charge in 1985, spearheading the immunisation effort against polio before it became a coordinated campaign in 1988. They understood that this global disease would need a global effort if it was to be defeated. With over 33,000 clubs spread across 200 countries, Rotarians are well placed to engage with local governments and communities to ensure that polio eradication is at the top of everyone's agenda. Financially Rotary itself has contributed over $900 million to the polio eradication effort as well as their members volunteering their own time and resources to reach over two billion children with the oral polio vaccine. Rotary's dedication to this cause has been unwavering, with the organisation currently aiming to match the $355 million donation made by Bill and Melinda Gates towards the eradication of polio. This challenge is critical as the Global Polio Eradication Initiative has a funding gap of just over half a billion dollars. Yes, they are only half a billion dollars away from eradicating that last one per cent of polio cases—miniscule compared to the money wasted by NBN Co. on the NBN.

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