Nigeria and the whole continent of Africa is on the cusp of being polio free, Dr. Hamid Jafari told audience members at the Rotary Convention on 8 June in São Paulo, Brazil.
Between 2013 and 2014, the reported cases of polio dropped from 53 to just six in Nigeria. Even more encouraging, said Jafari, is that the last case of polio in Nigeria was reported in July of last year and the last case in all of Africa was reported in Somalia in August.
“With a year of no polio cases in Nigeria tantalizingly close, and no cases in Somalia since August, the tireless work of so many people across the continent is paying off,” said Jafari, director of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative for the World Health Organization. “But it is incredibly important that Nigeria remains vigilant. As long as polio exists anywhere, it will continue to be a threat everywhere.”
Almost 200 million days of school attendance are lost every year because of the lack of proper sanitation. Many diarrhea cases in children result from transmission of disease in schools rather than at home.
“A school is a place where children should feel safe, not a place where they are susceptible to infection,” says Lizette Burgers, senior adviser of UNICEF’s Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in Schools program
But the message at the World Water Summit on 4 June in São Paulo was positive: Rotary members and their clubs can make schools healthier places through programs that provide clean water and better sanitation.
Pediatric heart surgeon Gerardo Davalos has treated scores of young heart patients, but one made a particular impression on him.
The day before 11-year-old Josue Ochoa died in 2013, Dr. Davalos, a member of the Rotary Club of Quito, Ecuador, walked into the boy's hospital room to say goodbye. The atmosphere in the room, where family members were gathered, was somber. But one person was smiling and comforting everyone else. It was Josue.
Says Davalos: "I'll never forget how strong Josue was in that moment. He wasn't concerned about himself. He was more worried about his mom and dad. He kept telling them that everything was going to be OK and that he'd lived a great life. He was an amazing child."
