Dimapur, Oct. 24 (EMN): Rotary Club of Dimapur organised a special meeting to commemorate World Polio Day on Monday at Rotary Centre, Midland, with district Immunisation officer, Dr. Rebecca Y Sema, as the guest speaker.
The club in an update informed that Dr. Rebecca spoke about the various steps taken by the world community at large to make the world polio-free.
“Now the polio virus is active only in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Polio cases have come down from 350000 cases per year 30 years ago to only 27 cases till now in this year,” she said.
She lauded Rotary International’s efforts in polio eradication and thanked Rotarians for their active participation in polio eradication since the last fifty years. She said “polio virus may again come back in all the countries if we do not continue with our efforts till we achieve zero cases. Polio is only a plane ride away.”
She explained about the various surveillance systems put in place by the government health authorities to detect and check polio.
The immunisation officer requested Rotary Club members to be more proactive and vigilant in their efforts by giving a harder push to achieve zero polio cases. Dr Rebecca was conferred honorary membership of Rotary Club of Dimapur for her efforts towards polio eradication in Nagaland, it stated.
Rtn RS Panesar, WG Meal coordinator for North East India, shared on the current and continuous efforts made by Rotary International throughout the world to achieve zero-level polio cases in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
World’s Greatest Meal is an organisation of Rotarians collecting funds for polio eradication by organising special meals),
He also spoke about the hardships being faced by polio volunteers in both the countries and said as many as 300 volunteers were killed by terrorists in the last one year, many of whom were women, in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Another highlight of the evening meeting was recognition and honour accorded to two polio survivors, namely Bikram Jaiswal and Ratan Sharma.
Rtn Pradip Kumar Jain, Rotary Foundation Chair, introduced the two polio survivors who became entrepreneurs despite being affected by polio and the stigma attached to polio victims.
Rotary Club president, Rtn Manish, Jain informed about the various other events planned for the day including putting of ‘End polio now’ banners at the main traffic points in the city. All Rotary club members have also taken a pledge to donate to the polio eradication fund of the Rotary Foundation this month.
The meeting ended with a religious discourse on Bhagvat Geeta and Krishna consciousness by Dr. RK Pahuja, a noted lawyer from Mumbai, it stated.