Letter from the District Governor

Dear Rotary Friends,

In my last letter I informed you of news that there were 2 cases of child polio in the Ukraine. Our friend Rasťo Maďar from RC Ostrava City sent me clarification and comforting news which I wish to share with you:

Dear Governor, dear Vadimir,
I would like to follow up on your recent District Governor letter no. 3, which spoke of the infectious child polio. In my professional capacity, I focus on infectious diseases, vaccines and Epidemiology, and further more I travel to Africa and Asia on medical humanitarian missions, so I follow very closely the process of eradication.
Just a few days ago, the World Commission on Child Polio Eradication Certification confirmed that the virus of the contagious child polio type 2 has definitely been eradicated from our planet.
This means that there remain two last virus types: 1 and 3. Til now, the last occurence of type 3 was in Nigeria in November 2012 and type 1 is circulating only in 2 countries of the world: Afghanistan and Pakistan. Unfortunately there, armed terrorists have fired on vaccination healthcare workers and some have been killed.
The recent cases of child polio in the Ukraine were caused by a weakened vaccine from an old generation of live vaccine applied by spoon into the mouth, a method not used in our country anymore. These cases were not an occurence of the wild polio virus, which happily no longer exists in Europe, and there was no epidemic. In this geographic area, the solution is to use non-live vacine as we do in our country or to increase the vaccination rate (still using the traditional method – by spoon)to pre war levels.
The eradication certification of type 2 polio virus means that there is no longer a need to vaccinate against this type and to change triple strength vaccine (OPV 1,2,3) to a double strength (OPV 1,2).The future eradication of the last 2 types would be a great success for the human race, which would mean the deletion of vaccination against infectious child polio from the vaccination chart in all countries of the world. As we all know, this has only happened in the case of one disease – dangerous true smallpox (varioly).
It is expected that total eradication of the remaining 2 types of poliovirus will be achieved in the next few years and it will be a great success for the whole Rotary movement.
I mainly wanted to point out that in the Ukraine, we are not talking about a real epidemic of child polio cases even though the clinical cases created by the weakened virus vaccine could have further serious repercussions. There is no danger of a great epidemic even though there is a civil war on going and there is no change in the European status of the eradication of poliomyelitis.
Sincere wishes,
Rasťo
Doc. MUDr. Rastislav Maďar, Ph.D., FRCPS

On the occasion of World Polio Day (23rd October, 2015), we are asked to make a contribution to The Rotary Foundation because for this Day, as an exception, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will triple, not double a matching contribution. Individual as well as club contributions can be sent directly to www.rotary.org (at the same time informing our Finance Chair, Vladimir Jandik) or to the District account (account number is on page XIV of the Rotary District Directory, VS is the RI club number with the specific symbol 99).

On 23.10.2015 at 23.30 you have watch a direct broadcast from World Polio Day on: http://www.endpolio.org/worldpolioday.

„...........the unpleasant Syrian refugee situation is the lithmus test for world compassion.........“ says General Secretary Rotary International John Hewko. „ Rotarians throughout the world are deeply affected by this migrant crisis which is now developing in many parts of the world“ which the UN have stated is the worst crisis in recent history. „Rotary is following the situation carefully, says Hewko, we know that our members have a natural desire to negotiate, as well as lessen the suffering and uncertainty of these families and people. We ask you to act as Rotarians have acted in more than 100 years..... use your professional knowledge and experience, your contacts and mobilise your local communities to offer the appropriate help and financial means to resolve this humanitarian crisis.
Rotarians can donate money to alleviate the suffering to RI partners like ShelterBoxhttp://shelterbox.org/. This organisation works together with other agencies so that they can distribute help in the required areas. ShelterBox is also working with communities in Greece to offer help to the homeless migrants.

Our friend Jozef Klement from RC Zvolen has created a challenge to our clubs. Assistant District Governors will be in touch with clubs to let them know more about this challenge.
As the month of November is about focus on support and help through The Rotary Foundation, with our donations to the TRF, we are helping the needy.

Be a gift to the world!

Yours,