New Delhi : 07.08.2004

Joy of Removing the Pain

I am delighted to participate in the International Polio Plus Summit organized by the Rotary International. I greet the organizers, members of the Central and State Governments, members of the participating countries, World Health Organization, UNICEF, Centre for Disease Control (Atlanta), scientists, doctors and other distinguished guests.

Contribution of Rotary International in Polio Eradication

Rotary International has been in the task of eradicating polio since the year 1985. In India the programme commenced in 1985. The world wide polio incident has declined from 3,50,000 a year to 1918 cases in 2002 and 225 cases in 2003. The cases so far reported in the year 2004 are 30. The majority of the cases reported belong to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The occurrence of Polio is high in certain districts of Uttar Pradesh viz. Badaun, Moradabad, Muzaffarnagar, & Saharanpur. The state and central health ministries have to mount a mission mode programme to make UP and Bihar polio-free.

Special Strategy for Preventing Polio Occurrence

There is a need to establish the causes of such occurrence and find remedial measures so that we can eradicate the occurrence of Polio from these districts. We can adopt the following strategy for motivating the families to bring the children for vaccination. There must be a system to watch the health care requirement of every new born child in the families in the villages and towns of these districts. Once the record of the children is available the health authorities must go to the parents and educate them on the necessity for immunizing the child against Polio. They must also be told that there is no side effect for the child due to polio vaccination. Also, it may be advisable to have polio camps in these villages on monthly basis using a mobile clinic so that all the children in the age group of zero to three are immunized during these camps. The Children who are not brought for immunization should also be tracked and it may be necessary to send the doctor or nursing assistants to their homes for providing the immunization. If this special attention is given, I am sure we can certainly make Uttar Pradesh and Bihar totally free from Polio.

Optimum Dose for Containing Viral Load

It is reported that there are some stray incidents where the child is affected by the Polio even after vaccination. This can happen in those regions where the dosage is not able to cope with the viral load in the region. In such cases it will be necessary to increase the dose and also adopt clinical methods to find whether the immunization has taken place or not after the administration of Polio vaccine. I am sure the medical community will be able to find an effective solution to this problem. I am happy to note that from thousands and hundreds of cases of polio occurrence in the past years we have come to a double digit number this year. This I would consider definitely as a commendable achievement. However, we cannot slacken our efforts till we see that there is zero occurrence of polio in the country from all the districts. The Rotary International and the participating organisations are definitely carrying out a very noble mission of removing the pain of the people. I can certainly imagine the pain of the parents whose children are affected by polio.

Joy of removing the pain

An important event I would like to share with you is about the fitment of FRO (Floor Reaction Orthosis) to a polio affected child. During my visit to one of the hospitals in Hyderabad, I found many children was struggling to walk with an artificial limb weighing over 3 kgs. At the request of Prof. Prasad of NIMS, Head of orthopedic department at that time, I asked my AGNI friends why we cannot use the composite material used for AGNI heat shield for fabricating FROs for polio affected patients. They immediately said it is possible. We worked on this project for sometime and came up with a FRO for the child weighing around 300 gms. Exactly, 1/10th of the weight which the child was carrying. The doctors helped us to fit the new light weight FRO on the child and the child started walking and running around. Her parents were also present. Tears rolled down from the eyes of the parents seeing their daughter running with light caliper.

With the light weight device provided by the hospital she could run, ride a bicycle and do all sorts of things which she had been denied for a long time. The removal of the pain and the freedom attained by the child gave me a state of bliss which I never experienced during any of the major successes in my carrier. This bliss came when a polio affected child started walking and running. I will experience greater bliss if the child in the first place is not affected by the Polio at all. I am sure all of you assembled here are in this mission. With your persistent efforts we should see that no polio case occurs during the year 2005 and beyond. I would appeal to all the parents to take pro-active steps to get their children immunized. It should be the responsibility of all the social organizations working in our districts to send this message to all the people living in the region. Also, they must work with medical organizations to make the doctors reach the remote areas and immunize the child well before the danger strikes.

Rehabilitation Programme for Polio affected

The central and state governments have to take up another mission to get the statistics of total number of affected polio children and grownups. There are two groups of affected people. I have observed that in one case we can fit the FRO?s to the polio affected patients directly and they become useful to the society. Such people constitute 70% of the cases. The remaining 30% cases need surgical intervention before fitment of the gadgets like calipers to the patients. This mission has to be taken up jointly by the state and central government.

Conclusion - Programme for HIV Eradication

When I see the commitment from various organizations for the elimination of polio in different regions. I would like to share another area of concern with this audience. Various parts of the world are getting affected by HIV/AIDS. It is time that the national and international agencies join together to mount a concerted programme in eliminating this dreaded disease from the planet earth. It can be a global mission with international agencies, WHO, Rotary international and member countries as partners. Definitely, India will be a partner in this mission. I am very happy to see the pioneering mission of the Rotary international, which commenced in 1985, culminating into a polio free world by 2005. India definitely is heading towards that.

India and Pakistan assembling here in the same dais today to fight polio-virus is a beautiful thing to happen. We have our enemies, common enemies, that is poverty and disease. Let us fight against these enemies instead of fighting amongst ourselves.

My best wishes to all of you for success in your mission of eradicating the pain of humanity.

May God bless you.

DR. A.P.J. Abdul KalamFORMER PRESIDENT OF INDIATerm of Office: 25th July 2002 - 25th July 2007

Address At The Inauguration Of International Polio Plus Summit

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