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Commitment to Immunization

Rotary and its global partners are committed to reaching every child with the vaccine and ending Polio worldwide.

A highly infectious disease that can cause paralysis and sometimes death, polio still strikes children in parts of Africa, Asia and the Middle East. As there is no cure, the best protection is prevention.In 1985 Rotary made a historic commitment to immunize all of the world’s children against polio.

For as little as US .60 cents worth of vaccine, a child can be protected against this crippling disease for life. To date, the number of polio cases has been reduced from 350,000 children annually in the mid 1980s to approximately 2,000 cases all last year. Only four countries: Nigeria, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, are still polio-endemic — an all-time low.

Rotary’s commitment to end polio represents the largest private-sector support of a global health initiative ever. In 1985, Rotary members worldwide vowed to immunize all the world’s children against polio. Since then, Rotary has contributed US$616 million to polio eradication. Besides raising and contributing funds, over one million men and women of Rotary have volunteered their time and personal resources to help immunize more than 2 billion children in 122 countries during national immunization campaigns.

The Santa Fe Immunization Coalition was formed in 2003 by Rotarian Dr. Tim Lopez, Dr Karen Armitage, then District 2 health officer, First lady Barbara Richardson. Other health care providers partnered to help New Mexico come up from 49th or 50th of all the states in on time, age appropriate immunizations. New Mexico is now ranked in the 30's and steadily improving.

The Coalition helped to create a statewide immunization data base. It has sponsored church based, school based and Wal-Mart based clinics.

We have:

1. provided funding and volunteers to support WIC (Womens, Infants, Children) monthly clinics.
2. sponsored several health care provider educational events in connection with National Immunization Days.
3. provided funding and support for in school shot clinics at the beginning of the school year.
4. provided needed immunizations for graduating seniors.

This year one of our major projects is to provide immunization training for the 63 registered day care homes in Santa Fe County - completed Saturday, March 1st, 2008. We will provide the same training to the 73 licensed day care centers in May. The Coalition will also do site visits to the day care centers over the next several months to review shot records train day care staff and provide services to families who have children who are not current with their immunizations.

All three Santa Fe Rotary clubs have provided volunteers and funding since 2003 to support these activities.

To find out how you can volunteer to help our local efforts in immunization, please email the Chair of the Immunization Committee.

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• THURSDAYS
• NOON

Club #1322

Chartered 1924

Mailing address:

PO Box 2465, Santa Fe, NM 87504-2465