MONTAGE
05:42 FOR MILLIONS OF AMERICANS, POLIO IS JUST ANOTHER VACCINATION FOR A DISEASE NOBODY EVER GETS.
05:50 BUT FOR MILLIONS IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD, POLIO HAS REMAINED AS CLOSE AS THE NEXT DRINK OF CONTAMINATED WATER OR THE NEXT MEAL EATEN WITH DIRTY HANDS.
06:01 THOUGH THEY WERE BORN DECADES AFTER A VACCINE WAS INVENTED, THESE INDIAN POLIO VICTIMS WERE BORN TOO SOON: THE VIRUS INFECTED THEM BEFORE THEY COULD GET VACCINATED.
06:12 BUT SCENES LIKE THIS, COMMMON FOR 20 CENTURIES AND MORE, COULD BECOME A MEMORY OF THE DAWN OF THE 21ST.
06:18 THANKS TO THE LARGEST PEACETIME MOBILIZATION IN HISTORY, THE POLIO VIRUS IS ABOUT TO BE ERADICATED -- ONLY THE SECOND TIME A DISEASE WILL HAVE BEEN CONQUERED. AND THE ROAD TO SUCCESS TODAY COULD LEAD TO FUTURE SUCCESS IN THE FIGHT AGAINST OTHER DISEASES.
06:33 FROM THE SUBURBS OF AMERICA TO THE SLUMS OF INDIA TO THE PLAINS OF AFRICA, A CRIPPLER AND KILLER HAS FINALLY MET ITS MATCH.
06:41 IT’S NOW POLIO’S TURN TO DIE.
Part 1
00:56 IN A WORLD WHERE THE WATER IS DIRTY AND MEDICAL CARE LIMITED OR EVEN NON-EXISTENT, THERE IS ALSO LITTLE DIGNITY: THEY ARE CALLED “CRAWLERS.” LIVING ON HANDOUTS AND OFTEN SHUNNED BY THEIR FAMILIES, THESE INDIAN POLIO VICTIMS ARE A TRAGIC REMINDER OF HOW FAR SO MANY OTHERS HAVE COME IN THE FOUR DECADES SINCE THE FIRST POLIO VACCINE WAS DEVELOPED.
07:21 HIS NAME IS MOHAMMED KHOKAA. HE SAYS HE GOT POLIO 9 YEARS AGO, WHEN HE WAS 15.
07:28 Earlier on when i was fine, I had a very good life, but since I had polio i’ts terrible. I feel ashamed begging, I don’t feel like begging, but what to do, I have to fill my stomach.
07:42 HIS DAYS ARE SPENT PLEADING FOR SPARE CHANGE.
07:45 what can I do, I have to beg? I ask for work, nobody gives me work. I have to look after my younger brother also, there is nobody behind me, there is nobody who will support me, nobody who will back me, so I have to take care of myself and my younger brother.
08:01 THERE ARE AN ESTIMATED TWENTY MILLION POLIO VICTIMS WORLDWIDE. HALF OF ALL NEW REPORTED CASES ARE IN INDIA, WHERE CONDITIONS ARE IDEAL FOR THE SPREAD OF THE DISEASE.
08:12 Walter Dowdle/PHD Virologist There's high humidity, there's very poor sanitatin, there's very high level of density of population. And when you add to that, the incomplete vacination and often low coverage of the population, then you've got all the elements to continue the virus for years and years and years. And that's exactly what's happened.
08:41 Dr. Harsh Vardhan: I've seen so many afflicted and suddenly it gives you a lot of pain, and that's why you try to do something for the community.
08:47 Dr. Harsh Vardhan is former Minister of Health for the City of Delhi, and was an early supporter of the campaign to eradicate polio.
08:54 I knew that there was a movement going on across the whole world to eradicate this virus just like we did for smallpox.
09:08 INDIA’S AMBITIOUS PLAN TO ERADICATE THE POLIO VIRUS IS BEING MATCHED BY A GROWING DETERMINATION TO DO BETTER FOR ITS VICTIMS.
09:16 IF THE PLIGHT OF PEOPLE LIKE MOHAMMED THE BEGGAR ILLUSTRATES THE WAY THINGS HAVE BEEN, THIS SCHOOL, JUST A FEW MILES AWAY, SHOWS HOW THINGS CAN BECOME.
09:35 Parveen Jatav/Student: This is a very good school, I like to study here. I can do everything. Nobody makes fun of me.
09:54 IT’S CALLED AKSHAY PRATISHAN, AND IT’S A PRIVATE SCHOOL FOR 300 POOR CHILDREN. HALF HAVE POLIO.
10:;02 Ajay Aumar/Student “I think I am quite like the rest of them, I also walk like the other kids walk.”
10:08 SUCH A MESSAGE OF TOLERANCE IS A CORNERSTONE OF THE PROGRAM HERE, AND IS TAUGHT ALONG WITH THE EXPECTED COURSES IN ACADEMICS, PHYS ED AND VOCATIONAL TRAINING.
10:18 Aruna Delmia/Akshay Pratishthan They get everything which is needed for a human being. They get a feeling that they are wanted, they get a feeling of love and care, and that is more important than any material things. You are one of them.
10:35 MAKING LIFE BETTER FOR THE COUNTRY’S POLIO VICTIMS DRAWS PRAISE FROM ALL CORNERS. BUT HEALTH OFFICIALS HAVE LONG KNOWN THAT THE BEST WAY TO DEAL WITH INDIA’S POLIO PROBLEM IS TO ERADICATE THE VIRUS ALL TOGETHER.
10:51 YET IN A NATION OF NEARLY A BILLION PEOPLE, MANY OF WHOM LIVE IN EITHER DENSELY PACKED URBAN AREAS OR AT THE OTHER EXTREME, IN REMOTE VILLAGES; WHERE EVEN BASIC MEDICAL CARE CAN BE HARD TO GET; THE PROSPECT OF SYSTEMATIC, COMPREHENSIVE, DOCUMENTABLE VACCINATION IS DAUNTING.
11:10 AND YET THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT HAS BEEN HAPPENING, FOR SEVERAL YEARS NOW, IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES WORLDWIDE. ON SO-CALLED “NATIONAL IMMUNIZATION DAYS”, ALL CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF 5 ARE TARGETTED TO RECEIVE THE ORAL POLIO VACCINE ON A SINGLE DAY.
11:25 WHAT’S EXPECTED TO BE INDIA’S FINAL ROUND OF “N-I-Ds” IS JUST DAYS AWAY, AND THIS VACCINE – PART OF AN ESTIMATED 130 MILLION DOSES -- WILL BEGIN A JOURNEY OF HOPE. HEALTH OFFICIALS, ACCOMPANIED BY AN ARMY OF VOLUNTEERS MORE THAN TEN TIMES LARGER THAN THE ALLIED FORCE THAT INVADED NORMANDY, WILL FAN OUT ACROSS THE COUNTRY.
11:45 THEY’LL BE CARRYING ICE-PACKED COOLERS FILLED WITH TINY VIALS OF VACCINE. THE GOAL? FROM THE HEART OF THE CITY TO THE MOST DISTANT VILLAGES, GET TWO DROPS IN THE MOUTH OF EVERY CHILD UNDER THE AGE OF 5.
12:01 TV COMMERCIALS HELP GET THE WORD OUT, AS DO NEWSPAPER ADS – THERE’S EVEN A COMMEMORATIVE POSTAGE STAMP – AND ALL REFLECT INDIA’S DETERMINATION TO SUCCEED.
12:11 Harsh Vardhan/ We are now quite close to polio eradication. In another couple of years we should see that the virus is out of the country, and simultaneously we also join the band of those nations who are polio-free.
12:27 THE ALL-IN-ONE-DAY STRATEGY IS A BIG REASON WHY ERADICATION IS AT HAND, IN PART BECAUSE IT CREATES A VIRTUAL WALL OF IMMUNITY THAT THE VIRUS CANNOT PENETRATE. BUT IT ALSO HELPS ENSURE THAT THE VACCINE – WHICH GOES BAD WITHIN A DAY IF NOT KEPT REFRIGERATED – IS ADMINISTERED IN A TIMELY FASHION. IT IS AN ENORMOUS UNDERTAKING.
12:46 Jon Andrus/World Health Orgnization It's not the elemination of a disease what we're really trying to do is erradicate the virus that causes the disease um, once that's done we're looking at a target where the whole world can stop immunizing children with the polio vaccine.
13:04 AND THOUGH MOST IN THE WEST SEEM UNAWARE OF EITHER THE ERADICATION CAMPAIGN OR ITS IMMINENT, LANDMARK, ACHIEVEMENT, ITS VERY SUCCESS IS IN LARGE PART ROOTED IN THE WEST.
13:14 SPECIFICALLY, IN THE HEARTS, WALLETS – AND WILL – OF A CHARITABLE ORGANIZATION BASED IN AMERICA WITH MEMBERS WORLDWIDE. A GROUP THAT WAS DETERMINED TO DO WHAT MANY HAD ONLY DREAMED POSSIBLE: ERADICATE THE POLIO VIRUS FROM THE FACE OF THE EARTH, BY THE YEAR 2000.
ENDS:00:13:31:00
PART 2
STARTS: 00:13:35:00
13:41 IN 1955 DR. JONAS SALK PRODUCED A POLIO VACCINE THAT CLAIMED 80-90% EFFECTIVENESS. IT ALSO WAS SAFE, BECAUSE IT WAS PRODUCED FROM A “DEAD” POLIO VIRUS --- THERE WAS NO CHANCE OF GETTING THE DISEASE FROM THE VACCINE.
((newsreel burst March of Dimes 15:37 – 14:12))
14:12WELL NOT EXACTLY, AS SCIENCE DISCOVERED.
Walter Dowdle 14:14 The salk vaccine prevented paralytic poliomyelitis that is a clinical symptoms but had limited effect in actually preventing the infection. So in other words with the salk vaccine after some years one could become reinfected and one could shed the virus but not have the disease.
14:37 Walter Dowdle/Task Force For Child Survival
And so whereas it was a wonderful vaccine for preventing disease it nevertheless was not a vaccine that could eradicate polio because the virus could still be circulated.
14:51 ALL THE WHILE, RESEARCHERS INCLUDING DR. ALBERT SABIN HAD BEEN DEVELOPING A MORE POWERFUL WEAPON, ONE MADE FROM A LIVE VIRUS -- A CLASS OF VACCINE THAT INCLUDES ONE FOR SMALLPOX.
15:02 David Weiner
They usually give broad protection and they give one other thing, lifelong immunity in general. which the nonlive approaches don't always do.
15:10 THEY ALSO STOP THE SPREAD OF DISEASE, CRITICAL IN THE QUEST FOR ERADICATION. SABIN’S VACCINE WAS FINALLY APPROVED IN THE U.S. IN 1961.
15:19 Walter Dowdle
all the children would on certain days under a certain age would get the vaccine. It worked extremely well, this was the approach that sabin was recommending for eliminating the virus so that all the children got the vaccine at one time and this would stop the transmission.
15:44 INDEED, THE INCIDENCE OF POLIO IN THE U.S. BEGAN TO DROP, FROM SOME 3,000 CASES IN 1960....TO A MERE 33 TEN YEARS LATER.
15:53 BUT WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF THE WORLD? POLIO PIONEER HILARY KOPROWSKI TESTED AN ORAL VACCINE IN THE CONGO IN THE LATE 1950s. HE KNEW EVEN THEN THAT SCIENCE FINALLY HAD THE RIGHT WEAPON FOR TAKING THE BATTLE FROM MAIN STREET USA TO THE FAR REACHES OF THE GLOBE.
Hilary Koprowski/Vaccine Researcher, Microbiologist
16:11 You have to administer the vaccine in the simplest possible way without the engagement of large medical personnel because there just isn't enough people. So we knew that with injectible vaccine, there were nurses, syringes, physicians, we would never do it. But just by spraying something in the mouth, you of course could obtain that, and that was the first probably in the world indication that this is the technique.
16:41 UN AGENCIES LIKE THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION AND UNICEF BEGAN MASSIVE INNOCULATION PROGRAMS IN THE EARLY 1970S. BACK THEN, ONLY 20% OF CHILDREN IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD RECEIVED ROUTINE IMMUNIZATIONS, INCLUDING POLIO. AND THOUGH THAT PERCENTAGE GRADUALLY INCREASED TO MORE THAN 80%, SOMETHING MORE NEEDED TO BE DONE IF POLIO WAS GOING TO BE ERADICATED.
ENDS:00:17:05:00
PART 3
STARTS:00:17:11:00
17:15 SATURDAY MORNING, AMBIA INDIANA. THE HAY NEEDS TO BE HARVESTED BEFORE IT RAINS AGAIN. PART OF THE CROP IS ALREADY RUINED, BUT HERB PIGMAN HAS BIGGER PROBLEMS ON HIS MIND.
17:31 Herb Pigman/Ambia, IN
We may be in a remote agricultural area here but I think we live in a global community, and having worked in the field and having seen the victims of polio, one cannot help but be moved by the plight of a child crippled by polio.
17:58 THURSDAY AFTERNOON IN SUBURBAN PHILADELPHIA. LIKE HERB PIGMAN IN INDIANA, THESE PEOPLE ARE MEMBERS OF ROTARY INTERNATIONAL, THE OLDEST AND ONE OF THE LARGEST NON-PROFIT PUBLIC SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS IN THE WORLD. HEADQUARTERED OUTSIDE CHICAGO, MEMBERS MAKE THEIR LIVINGS AS ACCOUNTANTS, PHYSICAL THERAPISTS, CAR DEALERS...AND VOLUNTEER FOR A VARIETY OF GOOD CAUSES, INCLUDING THE ERADICATION OF POLIO.
18:24 THEIR MISSION AND THEIR SUCCESS HAS BEEN MADE POSSIBLE BY THE VERY SCIENCE OF THE VACCINE.
18:29 ROTARY LEADERSHIP REALIZED THAT ONE OF THE ORAL VACCINE’S GREATEST ATTRIBUTES – THAT ANYONE CAN ADMINSTER IT – WAS A BENEFIT ONLY IF YOU HAD THE PEOPLE TO ACTUALLY DO THE WORK AND THE MONEY TO BUY VACCINE IN THE FIRST PLACE. IN 1979, ROTARIANS GOT BEHIND AN INNOCULATION EFFORT IN THE PHILLIPPINES, HELPING TO BUY VACCINE AND DELIVER IT NATIONWIDE.
18:51 FIVE YEARS LATER, FLUSH WITH SUCCESS, ROTARY LEADERS PUT TWO AND TWO TOGETHER AND GOT 1.2 MILLION – ROTARY’S MEMBERSHIP WORLDWIDE -- THE NUMBER OF FOOT SOLDIERS THEY COULD BRING TO THE WAR ON POLIO.
19:03 Bill Huntley/Rotary International
Our first barrier of course was the rotarians themselves, who couldn't belive that we would do what we intended to do which was simply to raise enough money to buy vaccine for all the children of the world, 120 million US dollars. We soon convince our rotarians and they buckled to and they raised 240 in one year.
19:27 Bill Sergeant/Rotary International
It is a war, and I consider the virus evil.
19:29 BILL SERGEANT SPENT HIS CAREER SAFEGUARDING AMERICA’S NUCLEAR STOCKPILE AT OAK RIDGE. NOW RETIRED, HE WAS HAPPY TO HELP DESIGN DEPLOYMENT STRATEGIES IN WHAT, FOR HIM, IS A VIRTUAL MILITARY CAMPAIGN.
19:40 Bill Sergeant
A virus who picks on the most defenselvess part of our population I think it's evil and I'm glad to go to war with it.
19:53 WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT ROTARY HAS DONE. SINCE 1985, MEMBERS HAVE ASSISTED WITH THE VACCINATION OF MORE THAN 1 BILLION CHILDREN WORLDWIDE ON THE SO-CALLED “NATIONAL IMMUNIZATION DAYS” LIKE THE ONE IN INDIA. LAST YEAR, 130 MILLION INDIAN CHILDREN – 1,500 EVERY SECOND – WERE INNOCULATED. AND OF THE 2 MILLION VOLUNTEERS NEEDED TO PULL THAT OFF, 150,000 WERE ROTARIANS.
20:20 Bill Sergeant
And they're the ones that can go out there and they can help bring the vaccine to the immunization points, they help the mothers and they bring the children to the points where they get immunized, they lots of cases, they administer the vaccines themselves,
20:37 Bill Huntley
Anyone who can count to 2 and squeeze 2 drops of vaccine into the mouth of an infant is in our business.
20:45 YET THE SUCCESSES – FUNDRAISING, INNOCULATING -- ALSO SPOTLIGHT THE TRAGEDY .
20:53 HIS NAME IS LUIS. HE LIVES IN THE VILLAGE OF PICHINAKI, SOME 250 MILES OUTSIDE LIMA PERU. THOUGH HE WAS BORN 28 YEARS AFTER ALBERT SABIN INVENTED HIS POLIO VACCINE, AND 4 YEARS AFTER ROTARY JOINED THE BATTLE GLOBALLY, LIKE MANY IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD, LUIS WAS BORN TOO SOON. HE GOT POLIO IN 1991, AND WOULD BE THE LAST NATURAL CASE OF POLIO IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE. WHEN THE VIRUS PASSED FROM HIS BELLY, IT FOUND NO NEW HOST. THREE YEARS LATER, IN 1994, HEALTH OFFICIALS DECLARED A POLIO-FREE ZONE FROM THE FROZEN ARCTIC TO CAPE HORN.
21:24 BUT BY THEN, FOR AMERICANS, POLIO WAS ALREADY A DISTANT MEMORY -- THOUGH A DIFFICULT ONE TO FORGET.
ENDS: 00:31:32:00
PART 4
STARTS: 00:21:39:00
21:43 Hilma Goodrich/Polio Survivor
And when I was two, my grandpa said to my mother, hey doc, there's something wrong in that baby's shoe, must have a pebble in it, cause she limps, take her shoe off and see what's the matter. So they did and my toes had dropped.
21:57 Diane Murphy/Polio Survivor
It was obviously a very traumatic and bad experience and the only thing that I can come up with is I just blocked it all out.
22:07 1916: 27,000 cases. A third are in New York, where panicked parents ship their children to hopefully safer locales. Meanwhile, in a misguided attempt at eradication, thousands of animals suspected of carrying the disease are slaughtered.
1943: Grim news from the war front is compounded by grim news at home: 12,000 new polio cases are reported, a 3-fold increase from the previous year.
1952: Nearly 60,000 cases, more than a third of them paralytic.
22:44 EVERYONE WAS AT RISK. AND EVEN THOUGH POLIO HAD LONG BEEN CALLED “INFANTILE PARALYSIS”, PASSAGE TO ADULTHOOD BROUGHT NO IMMUNITY.
22:59 Arnold Snyder/Polio Survivor
The water was quite choppy, a number of our men were sick, nausea, and it wasn't too much gung-ho amongst us at the time.
23:15 ARNOLD SNYDER LEFT PHILADELPHIA TO FIGHT THE NAZIS. HE WAS A 1-MAN BLITZKRIEG.
23:21 Arnold Snyder
The first Silver Star I received for knocking out a German armored half-track with a 50 caliber machine gun that I borrowed, at the Battle of the Bulge, I received a Silver Star when a German tank was near us and I was able to crawl up a hill and knock out the tank. I received 5 purple hearts. I was wounded on 5 separate occasions, starting with Normandy, Battle of the Bulge, a battle in Belgium and twice in Germany.
24:01 BACK HOME, SNYDER BEGAN STUDYING PHARMACY AT TEMPLE UNIVERSITY, THEN IN THE SUMMER OF 1948, HE TOOK A LONG WEEKEND AT THE SHORE.
24:11 Arnold Snyder
I was down in Atlantic City, swimming in the ocean, and then I went to the Ritz-Carlton pool, and while I was in the pool I felt odd. The doctor diagnosed me and said I had a mild stomach abdominal virus. The abdominal virus turned out to be polio, and the next morning I couldn't walk and could hardly breathe.
24:45 POLIO IS AN INTESTINAL INFECTION CAUSED BY THIS VIRUS, AND IS SPREAD THROUGH THE FECES. INADEQUATE HAND WASHING, AND CONTAMINATED DRINKING AND SWIMMING POOL WATER HELP SPREAD THE DISEASE. MANY VICTIMS EXPERIENCE IT AS NOTHING MORE THAN A BAD COLD OR FLU.
25;02 Mary Ann Keenan/Orthopedic Surgeon
In a small percentage of people the virus gets into the nervous system and it attacks a specific cell in the spinal cord which is the anterior horn cell. And that anterior horn cell is the one that send thenerve fiber out to give the signal to the muscles and the skeletal muscles and the arms and the legs and when that happens if the nerve cell dies then that portion of the muscle becomes paralyzed.
25:31 IF THE NERVES AND MUSCLES OF THE DIAPHRAGM ARE DESTROYED, PATIENTS CAN'T BREATHE. THE IRON LUNG RAISES AND LOWERS THE CHEST USING AIR PRESSURE CREATED BY A BELLOWS.
25:23 ARNOLD SNYDER WAS AS CLOSE TO DEATH AS ANY POLIO PATIENT GETS WHEN DOCTORS PUT HIM IN AN IRON LUNG.
25:51 Arnold Snyder
Everything you do you need help to do. At that time they put me on IV and I had to ask for help for everything. You can't even wipe the perspiration off your forehead, someone had to do that for you.
26:12 THE VIRUS DIES WITHIN WEEKS OF INFECTION. DEPENDING UPON THE NERVE DAMAGE, DISABILITY CAN BE ALMOST NONE TO SEVERE. BARBARA GOLDSTEIN REMEMBERS GETTING EXTENSIVE PHYSICAL THERAPY AT A STATE HOSPITAL IN NEW YORK. IT WAS TREATMENT DESIGNED TO STIMULATE DAMAGED LIMBS AND BUILD UP THE REST OF HER BODY.
26:31 Barbara Goldstein
From what mom said I was up there for 2 years. they did the rehab there, the physical thereapy whatever . my mother moved up and stayed near me in west haverstraw, and dad came up on weekends so that she would be near me at that time I was their only child.
46:48 EVEN THOUGH NERVE DAMAGE IS OFTEN PERMANENT, THE BODY IS ABLE TO GENERATE NEW NERVE CONNECTIONS. PATIENTS OFTEN REGAIN AT LEAST SOME USE OF AFFECTED LIMBS.
26:59 FOR ARNOLD SNYDER, WAR HERO NOW PARALYZED FROM THE NECK DOWN, THE MONTHS PASSED SLOWLY.
27:06 Arnold Snyder
Well, I thought about why me? I went through that difficult scenario, what did I do wrong in life that I would have this condition. What bothered me even more so, would this be my entire future? And all day long, 24 hours a day you have the swishing and the bang, swishing and the bang, and that was the motor going on and it becomes part of your life.
27:47 SNYDER BELIEVES THAT A GUARDIAN ANGEL GOT HIM THROUGH THE WAR. AS HE LAY IMMOBILIZED, HE’D WONDER WHERE HIS GUARDIAN ANGEL HAD BEEN THE DAY HE CAUGHT POLIO. HIS FAITH BROUGHT AN ANSWER:
27:58 Arnold Snyder
The guardian angel was busy with someone else who was needed it more than me. Lord puts things on you that you can carry.
28:09 SNYDER EVENTUALLY DID LEAVE THE LUNG, AFTER 6 MONTHS. AND WITH INTENSIVE PHYSICAL THERAPY AT THE WARM SPRINGS INSTITUTE IN GEORGIA, HE WAS WALKING A MONTH LATER. ALTHOUGH HIS UPPER BODY REMAINED WEAK, SNYDER WAS ABLE TO GET HIS COLLEGE DEGREE AND WENT ON TO HAVE A SUCCESSFUL CAREER AS A PHARMACIST AT THE FAMILY STORE IN PHILADELPHIA, MARRYING AND FATHERING CHILDREN.
28:31 DIANE MURPHY WOULD LATER GRADUATE FROM COLLEGE, GET MARRIED, HAVE A BABY. BUT IN A CRUEL POSTSCRIPT TO CHILDHOOD INFECTION, SURVIVORS LIKE DIANE ARE DISCOVERING THAT THE CRIPPLING EFFECTS THEY FOUGHT TO OVERCOME IN CHILDHOOD...RETURN LATER IN LIFE.
ENDS00:287:47:00
PART 5
STARTS: 00:28:53:00
29:01 SUNDAY, DECEMBER 6TH – IMMUNIZATION DAY. BY THIS TIME TOMORROW, IF THE CAMPAIGN IS SUCCESSFUL, 125 MILLION CHILDREN WILL HAVE SWALLOWED THE TWO- DROP DOSE OF VACCINE.
29:13 FOR THE PAST SEVERAL DAYS, VOLUNTEERS HAVE BEEN GETTING THE WORD OUT ANY WAY POSSIBLE, REMINDING PEOPLE OF THE UPCOMING N-I-D.
29:23 THESE ROTARIANS HAVE JOURNEYED FROM THE MID-SIZED CITY OF UDAIPUR, LOCATED SOME 330 MILES FROM THE CAPITAL CITY OF DELHI, TO THE TOWN OF JHADOL. FROM THIS BASE OF OPERATIONS, VOLUNTEERS WILL HEAD FOR OUTLYING VILLAGES SUCH AS BOGPOORA AND TINDLE.
29:41 Chander Khamesre/Rotarian
I'm working as a jeweler in Udiapur, and I joined Rotary only a few months ago. I am happy to associate myself with this immunization program, I wish the childrens get immunized and the Rotary achieves its target of a polio-free world by the year Azgizad..
30:06 FIRST STOP: BOGPOORA, A PLACE WHERE MORNING TEA IS PREPARED ON A FIRE FUELED BY COW DUNG.
30:59 THESE CHILDREN WILL COME OF AGE IN A POLIO-FREE 21ST CENTURY. BUT THE LEGACY OF THE DISEASE WILL REMAIN, AS ORTHOPEDIC SURGEONS WORLDWIDE WILL BE KEPT BUSY TREATING THE CONSEQUENCES OF INFECTION.
31:14 THEY COME FROM ALL OVER INDIA, HOPING FOR A BRIGHTER FUTURE.
31:19 This an attempt to rectify this evil of polio all around. You see the child is being operated on here.
31;24 IT IS A SURGERY CAMP, ONE OF TWELVE DAY-LONG EVENTS HELD IN 1998. ORGANIZED AND PAID FOR BY AND INDIAN RELIGIOUS SECT AND ROTARY, IT TRANSFORMS THIS SCHOOL BUILDING INTO A HOSPITAL. THE BASIC ORTHOPEDIC SURGERY IS DESIGNED TO GET POLIO PATIENTS OFF THE GROUND AND INTO A NEW LIFE.
31:43 Girl thru translator:
My name is Huvan
I've come here to get my leg operated on
I am suffering from polio
When asked how she is different from other kids, girl starts crying
I'll feel very good after the operation, then I'll feel very good playing along with other children
32:12 ON THIS DAY, NEARLY A THOUSAND WILL COME FOR TREATMENT; 200 WILL BE OPERATED ON, WITH PRIORITY GIVEN TO YOUNGER VICTIMS WITH THE BEST CHANCE OF SUCCESS. AT 24, THIS MAN – A BAKER, BY TRADE -- IS OLDER THAN MOST.
32:27 I have faith in the operation and I think that after the operation I'll be able to do things which I was not able to do earlier, like playing and jumping around and walking around
32:40 COFFEE FUELS BOTH DOCTORS AND PATIENTS. AFTER THE SURGERY – WHICH TAKES ONLY MINUTES – CASTS ARE APPLIED AND THE PATIENTS ARE MOVED TO THE RECOVERY ROOM.
32:51 THESE PATIENTS MAY VERY WELL SEE A DRAMATIC IMPROVEMENT IN THE QUALITY OF THEIR LIVES.
BUT AS AGING AMERICAN POLIO VICTIMS ARE DISCOVERING, NEITHER ERADICATION NOR CORRECTIVE SURGERY HAS PREVENTED THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW MEDICAL CONDITION THAT’S CASTING A PAINFUL, DEBILITATING SHADOW DECADES AFTER INFECTION.
33:19FOR DIANE MURPHY, WHAT ENDED WITH SHOULDER SURGERY BEGAN AS A CASE OF THE BLAHS.
33:25 Diane Murphy
I wasn't feeling well ….i was just so tired and…feeling just so drained like a dishrag all the time, [nat burst talking to horse] my stamina and level of energy had just you know plummetted
Diane Murphy
Doctors didn't believe there was such a thing and they think because you're a woman , you're depressed and that's your problem. And they didn't want to accept or really go along with the post polio syndrome theory. I guess I wanted to go see someone who'd tell me I'm not nuts, I'm not depressed, this real.
34:12 WEDNESDAY MORNING IN THE POST POLIO CLINIC AT PHILADELPHIA’S EINSTEIN HOSPITAL. AFTER DECADES OF COPING WITH – AND OVERCOMING – THE LIMITATIONS IMPOSED BY POLIO’S OFTEN CRIPPLING EFFECTS, PATIENTS ARE DISCOVERING A CRUEL POSTSCRIPT TO CHILDHOOD INFECTION. THE MUSCLES AND NERVE CELLS THAT PICKED UP THE SLACK CAUSED BY PARALYZED LIMBS ARE LITERALLY GIVING OUT FROM OVER-USE. DOROTHY EBERLIN FIRST NOTICED THE PAIN & WEAKNESS WHILE PICKING TOMATOES IN HER GARDEN.
Here, here down the elbow.
34:45 Mary Ann Keenan
One of the best comparisons you can make for a polio survivor is with a triathlete. But someone who tries to do a triathlon every day rather than once every few months. And therein lies the problem
Barbara Goldstein
35:03 My walking was becoming less and less. I was able to do less and less, I was getting weaker in my knee area, I felt tired very often.
35:15 PATIENTS LIKE BARBARA GOLDSTEIN, IN FOR AN ANNUAL CHECKKUP, OFTEN REQUIRE SURGERY.
35:21 Mary Ann Keenan
Barbar a actually has done quite well since the time that we did her total knee surgery. She's actually gained strength and gained function. She was using all these mechanical tricks to walk before and leaning on their joints and ligaments to substitute for her muscles. And her knee was actually was bending backwards instead of frontwards and going into a severe knock kneed position. And it's always been the teaching in orthosurgery that you can't do knee replacement in somebody with a totally paralyzed leg.
35:52Alberto Esquenazi/Surgeon
She's doing very good today, no pain in the knee, no evidence of loosening of that knee joint, her leg has maintained a nice straighter posture and she's able to walk withougt complaints of pain. She does have to use a brace all the time, that is the one issue, but she's tolerated trhat very well even though she lives in warm weather in Florida.
36:14 TOLERATED IT EMOTIONALLY, AS WELL. MANY POLIO PATIENTS, WHO FOUGHT SO HARD TO BE FREE OF BRACES AND WHEELCHAIRS, HAVE A TOUGH TIME ACCEPTING THE IDEA THAT THEY’VE GOT TO SLOW DOWN BEFORE THEIR BODIES WEAR OUT FROM OVER-USE.
36:27 Mary Ann Keenan
It's not really ratchit down, back it off. It's be a more intelligent manager of your energy and your time. As a physician, I dictate notes I don't type them. I can type but it's not a good use of my time, so I have someone else do that. And that's what they need to do. So a large part of what we're trying to do is make them feel that they really do have control over their lives and process again.
36:57 Barbara Goldstein
I had to make a commitment to wear the brace all the time. From the moment I got up in the morning until I literally went to bed at night. I asked her if I got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the nigh, she sid the brace goes on. You are not to put any pressure on that leg.
37:27Mary Ann Keenan
The bracing is, we're using newer materials, innovative designs, very lightweight, not the really old heavy metal leather types of braces and we try to keep it as minimal as possible.
37:44 SHOULDERS ARE ANOTHER VULNERABLE PART OF THE BODY. SURVIVORS LIKE DIANE MURPHY FREQUENTLY TEAR THEIR ROTATOR CUFF FROM YEARS OF OVERUSE, WHETHER USING CRUTCHES, ROLLING A WHEELCHAIR – OR, IN DIANE’S CASE, PULLING HERSELF UP WHEN MOUNTING THE HORSE.
BUT DESPITE THE PAIN AND INCOVENIENCE, WHAT BEGAN AS PHYSICAL THERAPY IS NOW A DRIVING AMBITION.
38:15 Diane Murphy
She's been giving me dressage lessons -- my goal is to compete in the Paralympics in 2000
38:26 Mary Ann Keenan
Our emphasis is letting Diane be a very active woman participate in all kinds of things that she so much enjoys but doing it in a safe way so that she doesn't pay a price 15 years from now.
38:46 Mary Ann Keenan
And ultimately your health care decisions are your own. You answer for them, you pay the ultimate price for your decisions.
38:58 Diane Murphy
A lot of the people have a hard time accepting that and don't want to make any changes. And I just figured I owed that much to my family you know my son, he had a life and I just had to be the best mom I could be and I wasn't good for anybody, myself, anybody.
ENDS 00:39:29:00
PART 6
STARTS: 00:39:33:00
39:51 THE FINAL LEG OF THE TRIP FOR THIS TEAM OF VOLUNTEERS TAKES THE VACCINE INTO THE THE HILLS OF RAJASTHAN, (XFADE TO MAP) FROM BOG POORA TO TINDLE..
39:59 Dr. Moti Lal Jain
We are approaching the remote areas, a few of them we are approaching by motorcycle, a few of them we are approaching by the camel, we are taking the vaccine on the camel and our workers are going on the camels also, and a few places our workers are going on the foot.
40:35 PEOPLE HERE EEK OUT A LIVING FROM THE LAND, FARMING AND MINING; TODAY MANY WILL MAKE THE TRIP TO THE VILLAGE ON FOOT.
40:43 Rajendra Saboo/Rotary International
India has accounted for more that 50% of the work cases. One of the factors that weighs very strongly in minds of the people and leadership of the country is if the country has to rise in the committee of nations, it must eliminate polio, and it must not be an exporter of polio, and that is a challenge before the Rotarians and people of India. To my mind there is no option.
41:07RAJENDRA SABOO IS PAST PRESIDENT OF ROTARY INTERNATIONAL, AND A ROTARIAN SINCE 1961.
41:15 It has to be done, and if God is on our side, which I think is the case, we will do it. I don't see any alternative to that.
41:29 HEALTH OFFICIALS PREDICT THAT THE LAST BATTLE WILL BE FOUGHT IN AFRICA, WHERE A DISPERSED POPULATION, CIVIL WAR AND LIMITED PUBLIC HEALTH SYSTEMS FRUSTRATE THE ERADICATION EFFORT AND PROGRAMS SUCH AS THE “KICK POLIO OUT OF AFRICA” CAMPAIGN.
41:44Jonathan Magiyabe/Rotary International
I see it as a mission possible. Most of the countries of southerna africa are emerging as polio free areas.
41:53 YET EVEN IF IMMUNIZATION DAYS CAN BE SCHEDULED, HUMAN CONFLICT USUALLY CAN’T. AROUND THE WORLD, WARS HAVE OFTEN IMPEDED THE IMMUNIZATION EFFORT. INDEED, THE PERUVIAN CIVIL WAR PREVENTED THE TIMELY DELIVERY OF VACCINE TO LUIS, WHO WOULD BECOME THE LAST POLIO VICTIM IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE. OFFICIALS SAY HE WOULD AND SHOULD HAVE BEEN IMMUNIZED, BUT FIGHTING BETWEEN GOVERNMENT TROOPS AND THE SHINING PATH GUERRILLAS MADE THE JUNGLE TREK TOO DANGEROUS. THE INNOCULATIONS WERE POSTPONED AND, IN THE MEANTIME, LUIS CAUGHT THE DISEASE.
42:23 STILL, THERE ARE SUCCESSES, CALLED “DAYS OF TRANQUILITY”.
42:28 Bill Huntley/Rotary International
I was in sri lanka when we had a day of tranquility when the tamil tigers and the govt forces agreed to lay down their arms for the purpose of immunizing children and then this has happened at the height of the war in lebanon, it's happene din el salvador and several other places. So the children come first even at the time of civil strife.
42:50 Walter Dowdle
They recognize that it's for the best of their population no matter which side they happen to be on
42;58 AND AS HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF ROTARIANS HAVE SHOWN, DELIVERY IS AN ESSENTIAL PART OF THE SOLUTION. BUT THE WORLD CAN’T DRAFT THE ROTARIANS EVERY TIME IT WANTS TO TACKLE DISEASE, SO NEW DELIVERY SYSTEMS ARE NEEDED.
43:17 DR. HILARY KOPROWSKI, WHO DEVELOPED A LIVE POLIO VACCINE IN THE 1950s, IS LEADING A TEAM OF RESEARCHERS WHO WANT TO USE PLANTS TO DELIVER VACCINES. THEY’VE FIGURED OUT HOW TO PIGGYBACK THE RABIES ANTIGEN ONTO A HARMLESS PLANT VIRUS, WHICH SPINACH AND TOBACCO ABSORB THROUGH THEIR LEAVES. THE RABIES ANTIGEN SPREADS THROUGHOUT THE PLANT AND THE RESULT, FOR LAB MICE, IS A VIRTUAL VACCINE SALAD.
43:42 Vidadi Yusibov/Vaccine Researcher
And for the humans, what we will do, we plan to simply take the spinach which contains the rabies antigen and eat it as any other salad
43:;54 THE GOAL? DEVELOPING COUNTRIES COULD LITERALLY GROW THEIR OWN VACCINES AND ADMINISTER THEM AS FOOD.
ALSO NEEDED: NEW VACCINES. WORLDWIDE, THE LEADING KILLER DISEASES AREN’T CANCER OR HEART DISEASE. THEY’RE THINGS LIKE DIARRHEA, MEASLES AND MALARIA – VACCINES ARE EITHER RELATIVELY EXPENSIVE OR DON’T EXIST. COULD A SOLUTION LIE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN ENTIRELY NEW KIND OF VACCINE?
44:20 DR. DAVID WEINER’S AIDS RESEARCH IS PRODUCING TANTALIZING RESULTS. HIS TEAM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA IS WORKING WITH OTHER RESEARCHERS ON A PROJECT INVOLVING DNA THAT BASICALLY MASQUERADES AS DISEASE. IT’S A CRITICAL ADVANCE OVER VACCINES USING ACTUAL LIVE VIRUSES, WHICH RARELY – AND TRAGICALLY – CAN CAUSE THE DISEASE IN PEOPLE WHO GET THE VACCINE. WEINER’S DNA-BASED VACCINE, WHEN INJECTED INTO HUMANS, FOOLS THE BODY INTO BELIEVING IT’S BEEN INFECTED WITH THE ACTUAL VIRUS. SO FAR, BOTH HIV-POSITIVE AND HIV-NEGATIVE PEOPLE HAVE GOTTEN THE DNA INJECTIONS.
44:56 David Weiner/Vaccine Researcher
We have vaccinated infected individuals with this approach and the idea there is to stimulate their immune response so that they can better control the virus infection that they have. We've also vaccinated persons who have never been exposed to hiv and that's really what our vaccine target would be. Unexposed individuals who could contract hiv infection and in those studies we now have evidence that they produce immune responses to the vaccine.
45:36 We have absolutely no evidence that we're having a clinically significant effect in any of these studies at this point in time. The patients have developed some evidence of stimulating their immune responses, in the infected patients. And in the noninfected patients we've been able to produce an immune response in people previously had no immune response to hiv and so the principal of the vaccine, of the immunization has probably been substantiated.
46:03 STILL, PUBLIC HEALTH EXPERTS POINT OUT THAT EVEN IF YOU FOUND A CURE OR VACCINE FOR AIDS TOMORROW, THE DEVELOPING WORLD – WHERE AIDS IS MORE WIDESPREAD – WOULD HARDLY BE ABLE TO AFFORD IT. EVEN WHEN POLIO IS ERADICATED AND THE ONE AND A HALF BILLION DOLLARS CURRENTLY SPENT FIGHTING THE DISEASE COULD BE DIRECTED ELSEWHERE, A HUGE FINANCIAL GAP REMAINS.
46:23 Walter Dowdle
There is the idea that there could be two tiers of prices set up, and that's really being practiced now by some manufacturers. But the problem is, in the case of some of the newer vaccines, the cost of making those vaccines is so great that it's difficult to even see how you could set up a tiered approach that would make it affordable to these developing countries.
46:56 ONE MARKET-DRIVEN SUCCESS INVOLVES A DISEASE CALLED RIVER BLINDNESS, WHICH IS SIMILAR TO HEARTWORM IN DOGS. RIVER BLINDNESS AFFECTS THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE, MOSTLY IN AFRICA, EVERY YEAR. (nat burst dog bark) TURNS OUT THAT THE DRUG VETS USE TO PREVENT HEARTWORM STOPS THE DISEASE IN PEOPLE BEFORE BLINDNESS SETS IN. THE DRUG IS MADE BY MERCK, AND PROFITS FROM THE VETERINARY BUSINESS HAVE ENABLED MERCK TO PROMISE AN UNLIMITED SUPPLY OF THE DRUG FOR USE IN PEOPLE, FOREVER.
47:24 Walter Dowdle
So the story is that the dogs of America have made this drug available free of charge to Africa.
47:33 BUT DOWDLE POINTS OUT THAT DRUGS AREN’T THE ONLY ANSWER AND MIGHT OFTEN BE THE LAST LINE OF DEFENSE IN THE QUEST TO ERADICATE DISEASE IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD. HE ASKS WHETHER LESS DRAMATIC MEASURES CAN HAVE BROADER EFFECTS.
47:46 Walter Dowdle
What are the overall health requirements and it's very difficult to actually make decisions for them, which one can't do, but to make decisions about developing countries without taking into consideration all their needs and some of the more basic needs that we just simply take for granted.
48:06 STILL, WHEN IT COMES TO PURELY MEDICAL PROGRAMS, NO ONE DISPUTES THE VALUE OF ERADICATING POLIO, EVEN IF IT IS WAY DOWN THE LIST OF KILLER DISEASES.
48:16 Jon Andrus/World Health Organization
But unlike these other probl ems, polio is a disease that can be eradicated, so if we put in that effort today, once the disease is eradicated we won't have to put in efforts to control it, and those resources that are saved from having eradicated it can be diverted to other programs, whether it be the prevention of hepatitis B, or malaria control programs, this is the benefit by putting in the extra effort in the next couple of years.
48: 48 AND THEN THERE’S THE INVALUABLE LESSON LEARNED ABOUT HOW TO WAGE SUCH WARS, WHATEVER THE ENEMY.
48:54 Bill Huntley
Rotary has taught the world how to mibilize people to fight.
48:59 Rajendra Saboo
We all can feel that this is an emerging force which, together with the governments, would be able to tackle many other issues. So I think this would be great example as we bid goodbye to this century.
49:24 THE N-I-D IS WINDING DOWN. VOLUNTEERS GO FROM DOOR TO DOOR ON THE CHANCE THAT SOME CHILD, SOMEWHERE DIDN’T GET THE VACCINE EARLIER IN THE DAY. WHEN THE DAY IS DONE, 136 MILLION CHILDREN WILL HAVE BEEN VACCINATED – 11 MILLION MORE THAN EXPECTED. THE FEAT WILL BE REPEATED 6 WEEKS LATER AS A PRECAUTION.
49:43 HEALTH OFFICIALS SAY INDIA – AND THE REST OF THE WORLD –- REMAIN ON TARGET IN THE QUEST TO WIPE OUT THE VIRUS BY THE YEAR 2000, THOUGH IT WILL TAKE YEARS TO CERTIFY THAT POLIO IS NO LONGER A THREAT. AND WHILE IT’S POSSIBLE THE EFFORT WILL FAIL TO MEET ITS SHORT TERM GOAL, THOSE WAGING THE WAR VOW NOT TO SURRENDER.
ENDS:00:51:00:00
05:42 FOR MILLIONS OF AMERICANS, POLIO IS JUST ANOTHER VACCINATION FOR A DISEASE NOBODY EVER GETS.
05:50 BUT FOR MILLIONS IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD, POLIO HAS REMAINED AS CLOSE AS THE NEXT DRINK OF CONTAMINATED WATER OR THE NEXT MEAL EATEN WITH DIRTY HANDS.
06:01 THOUGH THEY WERE BORN DECADES AFTER A VACCINE WAS INVENTED, THESE INDIAN POLIO VICTIMS WERE BORN TOO SOON: THE VIRUS INFECTED THEM BEFORE THEY COULD GET VACCINATED.
06:12 BUT SCENES LIKE THIS, COMMMON FOR 20 CENTURIES AND MORE, COULD BECOME A MEMORY OF THE DAWN OF THE 21ST.
06:18 THANKS TO THE LARGEST PEACETIME MOBILIZATION IN HISTORY, THE POLIO VIRUS IS ABOUT TO BE ERADICATED -- ONLY THE SECOND TIME A DISEASE WILL HAVE BEEN CONQUERED. AND THE ROAD TO SUCCESS TODAY COULD LEAD TO FUTURE SUCCESS IN THE FIGHT AGAINST OTHER DISEASES.
06:33 FROM THE SUBURBS OF AMERICA TO THE SLUMS OF INDIA TO THE PLAINS OF AFRICA, A CRIPPLER AND KILLER HAS FINALLY MET ITS MATCH.
06:41 IT’S NOW POLIO’S TURN TO DIE.
Part 1
00:56 IN A WORLD WHERE THE WATER IS DIRTY AND MEDICAL CARE LIMITED OR EVEN NON-EXISTENT, THERE IS ALSO LITTLE DIGNITY: THEY ARE CALLED “CRAWLERS.” LIVING ON HANDOUTS AND OFTEN SHUNNED BY THEIR FAMILIES, THESE INDIAN POLIO VICTIMS ARE A TRAGIC REMINDER OF HOW FAR SO MANY OTHERS HAVE COME IN THE FOUR DECADES SINCE THE FIRST POLIO VACCINE WAS DEVELOPED.
07:21 HIS NAME IS MOHAMMED KHOKAA. HE SAYS HE GOT POLIO 9 YEARS AGO, WHEN HE WAS 15.
07:28 Earlier on when i was fine, I had a very good life, but since I had polio i’ts terrible. I feel ashamed begging, I don’t feel like begging, but what to do, I have to fill my stomach.
07:42 HIS DAYS ARE SPENT PLEADING FOR SPARE CHANGE.
07:45 what can I do, I have to beg? I ask for work, nobody gives me work. I have to look after my younger brother also, there is nobody behind me, there is nobody who will support me, nobody who will back me, so I have to take care of myself and my younger brother.
08:01 THERE ARE AN ESTIMATED TWENTY MILLION POLIO VICTIMS WORLDWIDE. HALF OF ALL NEW REPORTED CASES ARE IN INDIA, WHERE CONDITIONS ARE IDEAL FOR THE SPREAD OF THE DISEASE.
08:12 Walter Dowdle/PHD Virologist There's high humidity, there's very poor sanitatin, there's very high level of density of population. And when you add to that, the incomplete vacination and often low coverage of the population, then you've got all the elements to continue the virus for years and years and years. And that's exactly what's happened.
08:41 Dr. Harsh Vardhan: I've seen so many afflicted and suddenly it gives you a lot of pain, and that's why you try to do something for the community.
08:47 Dr. Harsh Vardhan is former Minister of Health for the City of Delhi, and was an early supporter of the campaign to eradicate polio.
08:54 I knew that there was a movement going on across the whole world to eradicate this virus just like we did for smallpox.
09:08 INDIA’S AMBITIOUS PLAN TO ERADICATE THE POLIO VIRUS IS BEING MATCHED BY A GROWING DETERMINATION TO DO BETTER FOR ITS VICTIMS.
09:16 IF THE PLIGHT OF PEOPLE LIKE MOHAMMED THE BEGGAR ILLUSTRATES THE WAY THINGS HAVE BEEN, THIS SCHOOL, JUST A FEW MILES AWAY, SHOWS HOW THINGS CAN BECOME.
09:35 Parveen Jatav/Student: This is a very good school, I like to study here. I can do everything. Nobody makes fun of me.
09:54 IT’S CALLED AKSHAY PRATISHAN, AND IT’S A PRIVATE SCHOOL FOR 300 POOR CHILDREN. HALF HAVE POLIO.
10:;02 Ajay Aumar/Student “I think I am quite like the rest of them, I also walk like the other kids walk.”
10:08 SUCH A MESSAGE OF TOLERANCE IS A CORNERSTONE OF THE PROGRAM HERE, AND IS TAUGHT ALONG WITH THE EXPECTED COURSES IN ACADEMICS, PHYS ED AND VOCATIONAL TRAINING.
10:18 Aruna Delmia/Akshay Pratishthan They get everything which is needed for a human being. They get a feeling that they are wanted, they get a feeling of love and care, and that is more important than any material things. You are one of them.
10:35 MAKING LIFE BETTER FOR THE COUNTRY’S POLIO VICTIMS DRAWS PRAISE FROM ALL CORNERS. BUT HEALTH OFFICIALS HAVE LONG KNOWN THAT THE BEST WAY TO DEAL WITH INDIA’S POLIO PROBLEM IS TO ERADICATE THE VIRUS ALL TOGETHER.
10:51 YET IN A NATION OF NEARLY A BILLION PEOPLE, MANY OF WHOM LIVE IN EITHER DENSELY PACKED URBAN AREAS OR AT THE OTHER EXTREME, IN REMOTE VILLAGES; WHERE EVEN BASIC MEDICAL CARE CAN BE HARD TO GET; THE PROSPECT OF SYSTEMATIC, COMPREHENSIVE, DOCUMENTABLE VACCINATION IS DAUNTING.
11:10 AND YET THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT HAS BEEN HAPPENING, FOR SEVERAL YEARS NOW, IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES WORLDWIDE. ON SO-CALLED “NATIONAL IMMUNIZATION DAYS”, ALL CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF 5 ARE TARGETTED TO RECEIVE THE ORAL POLIO VACCINE ON A SINGLE DAY.
11:25 WHAT’S EXPECTED TO BE INDIA’S FINAL ROUND OF “N-I-Ds” IS JUST DAYS AWAY, AND THIS VACCINE – PART OF AN ESTIMATED 130 MILLION DOSES -- WILL BEGIN A JOURNEY OF HOPE. HEALTH OFFICIALS, ACCOMPANIED BY AN ARMY OF VOLUNTEERS MORE THAN TEN TIMES LARGER THAN THE ALLIED FORCE THAT INVADED NORMANDY, WILL FAN OUT ACROSS THE COUNTRY.
11:45 THEY’LL BE CARRYING ICE-PACKED COOLERS FILLED WITH TINY VIALS OF VACCINE. THE GOAL? FROM THE HEART OF THE CITY TO THE MOST DISTANT VILLAGES, GET TWO DROPS IN THE MOUTH OF EVERY CHILD UNDER THE AGE OF 5.
12:01 TV COMMERCIALS HELP GET THE WORD OUT, AS DO NEWSPAPER ADS – THERE’S EVEN A COMMEMORATIVE POSTAGE STAMP – AND ALL REFLECT INDIA’S DETERMINATION TO SUCCEED.
12:11 Harsh Vardhan/ We are now quite close to polio eradication. In another couple of years we should see that the virus is out of the country, and simultaneously we also join the band of those nations who are polio-free.
12:27 THE ALL-IN-ONE-DAY STRATEGY IS A BIG REASON WHY ERADICATION IS AT HAND, IN PART BECAUSE IT CREATES A VIRTUAL WALL OF IMMUNITY THAT THE VIRUS CANNOT PENETRATE. BUT IT ALSO HELPS ENSURE THAT THE VACCINE – WHICH GOES BAD WITHIN A DAY IF NOT KEPT REFRIGERATED – IS ADMINISTERED IN A TIMELY FASHION. IT IS AN ENORMOUS UNDERTAKING.
12:46 Jon Andrus/World Health Orgnization It's not the elemination of a disease what we're really trying to do is erradicate the virus that causes the disease um, once that's done we're looking at a target where the whole world can stop immunizing children with the polio vaccine.
13:04 AND THOUGH MOST IN THE WEST SEEM UNAWARE OF EITHER THE ERADICATION CAMPAIGN OR ITS IMMINENT, LANDMARK, ACHIEVEMENT, ITS VERY SUCCESS IS IN LARGE PART ROOTED IN THE WEST.
13:14 SPECIFICALLY, IN THE HEARTS, WALLETS – AND WILL – OF A CHARITABLE ORGANIZATION BASED IN AMERICA WITH MEMBERS WORLDWIDE. A GROUP THAT WAS DETERMINED TO DO WHAT MANY HAD ONLY DREAMED POSSIBLE: ERADICATE THE POLIO VIRUS FROM THE FACE OF THE EARTH, BY THE YEAR 2000.
ENDS:00:13:31:00
PART 2
STARTS: 00:13:35:00
13:41 IN 1955 DR. JONAS SALK PRODUCED A POLIO VACCINE THAT CLAIMED 80-90% EFFECTIVENESS. IT ALSO WAS SAFE, BECAUSE IT WAS PRODUCED FROM A “DEAD” POLIO VIRUS --- THERE WAS NO CHANCE OF GETTING THE DISEASE FROM THE VACCINE.
((newsreel burst March of Dimes 15:37 – 14:12))
14:12WELL NOT EXACTLY, AS SCIENCE DISCOVERED.
Walter Dowdle 14:14 The salk vaccine prevented paralytic poliomyelitis that is a clinical symptoms but had limited effect in actually preventing the infection. So in other words with the salk vaccine after some years one could become reinfected and one could shed the virus but not have the disease.
14:37 Walter Dowdle/Task Force For Child Survival
And so whereas it was a wonderful vaccine for preventing disease it nevertheless was not a vaccine that could eradicate polio because the virus could still be circulated.
14:51 ALL THE WHILE, RESEARCHERS INCLUDING DR. ALBERT SABIN HAD BEEN DEVELOPING A MORE POWERFUL WEAPON, ONE MADE FROM A LIVE VIRUS -- A CLASS OF VACCINE THAT INCLUDES ONE FOR SMALLPOX.
15:02 David Weiner
They usually give broad protection and they give one other thing, lifelong immunity in general. which the nonlive approaches don't always do.
15:10 THEY ALSO STOP THE SPREAD OF DISEASE, CRITICAL IN THE QUEST FOR ERADICATION. SABIN’S VACCINE WAS FINALLY APPROVED IN THE U.S. IN 1961.
15:19 Walter Dowdle
all the children would on certain days under a certain age would get the vaccine. It worked extremely well, this was the approach that sabin was recommending for eliminating the virus so that all the children got the vaccine at one time and this would stop the transmission.
15:44 INDEED, THE INCIDENCE OF POLIO IN THE U.S. BEGAN TO DROP, FROM SOME 3,000 CASES IN 1960....TO A MERE 33 TEN YEARS LATER.
15:53 BUT WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF THE WORLD? POLIO PIONEER HILARY KOPROWSKI TESTED AN ORAL VACCINE IN THE CONGO IN THE LATE 1950s. HE KNEW EVEN THEN THAT SCIENCE FINALLY HAD THE RIGHT WEAPON FOR TAKING THE BATTLE FROM MAIN STREET USA TO THE FAR REACHES OF THE GLOBE.
Hilary Koprowski/Vaccine Researcher, Microbiologist
16:11 You have to administer the vaccine in the simplest possible way without the engagement of large medical personnel because there just isn't enough people. So we knew that with injectible vaccine, there were nurses, syringes, physicians, we would never do it. But just by spraying something in the mouth, you of course could obtain that, and that was the first probably in the world indication that this is the technique.
16:41 UN AGENCIES LIKE THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION AND UNICEF BEGAN MASSIVE INNOCULATION PROGRAMS IN THE EARLY 1970S. BACK THEN, ONLY 20% OF CHILDREN IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD RECEIVED ROUTINE IMMUNIZATIONS, INCLUDING POLIO. AND THOUGH THAT PERCENTAGE GRADUALLY INCREASED TO MORE THAN 80%, SOMETHING MORE NEEDED TO BE DONE IF POLIO WAS GOING TO BE ERADICATED.
ENDS:00:17:05:00
PART 3
STARTS:00:17:11:00
17:15 SATURDAY MORNING, AMBIA INDIANA. THE HAY NEEDS TO BE HARVESTED BEFORE IT RAINS AGAIN. PART OF THE CROP IS ALREADY RUINED, BUT HERB PIGMAN HAS BIGGER PROBLEMS ON HIS MIND.
17:31 Herb Pigman/Ambia, IN
We may be in a remote agricultural area here but I think we live in a global community, and having worked in the field and having seen the victims of polio, one cannot help but be moved by the plight of a child crippled by polio.
17:58 THURSDAY AFTERNOON IN SUBURBAN PHILADELPHIA. LIKE HERB PIGMAN IN INDIANA, THESE PEOPLE ARE MEMBERS OF ROTARY INTERNATIONAL, THE OLDEST AND ONE OF THE LARGEST NON-PROFIT PUBLIC SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS IN THE WORLD. HEADQUARTERED OUTSIDE CHICAGO, MEMBERS MAKE THEIR LIVINGS AS ACCOUNTANTS, PHYSICAL THERAPISTS, CAR DEALERS...AND VOLUNTEER FOR A VARIETY OF GOOD CAUSES, INCLUDING THE ERADICATION OF POLIO.
18:24 THEIR MISSION AND THEIR SUCCESS HAS BEEN MADE POSSIBLE BY THE VERY SCIENCE OF THE VACCINE.
18:29 ROTARY LEADERSHIP REALIZED THAT ONE OF THE ORAL VACCINE’S GREATEST ATTRIBUTES – THAT ANYONE CAN ADMINSTER IT – WAS A BENEFIT ONLY IF YOU HAD THE PEOPLE TO ACTUALLY DO THE WORK AND THE MONEY TO BUY VACCINE IN THE FIRST PLACE. IN 1979, ROTARIANS GOT BEHIND AN INNOCULATION EFFORT IN THE PHILLIPPINES, HELPING TO BUY VACCINE AND DELIVER IT NATIONWIDE.
18:51 FIVE YEARS LATER, FLUSH WITH SUCCESS, ROTARY LEADERS PUT TWO AND TWO TOGETHER AND GOT 1.2 MILLION – ROTARY’S MEMBERSHIP WORLDWIDE -- THE NUMBER OF FOOT SOLDIERS THEY COULD BRING TO THE WAR ON POLIO.
19:03 Bill Huntley/Rotary International
Our first barrier of course was the rotarians themselves, who couldn't belive that we would do what we intended to do which was simply to raise enough money to buy vaccine for all the children of the world, 120 million US dollars. We soon convince our rotarians and they buckled to and they raised 240 in one year.
19:27 Bill Sergeant/Rotary International
It is a war, and I consider the virus evil.
19:29 BILL SERGEANT SPENT HIS CAREER SAFEGUARDING AMERICA’S NUCLEAR STOCKPILE AT OAK RIDGE. NOW RETIRED, HE WAS HAPPY TO HELP DESIGN DEPLOYMENT STRATEGIES IN WHAT, FOR HIM, IS A VIRTUAL MILITARY CAMPAIGN.
19:40 Bill Sergeant
A virus who picks on the most defenselvess part of our population I think it's evil and I'm glad to go to war with it.
19:53 WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT ROTARY HAS DONE. SINCE 1985, MEMBERS HAVE ASSISTED WITH THE VACCINATION OF MORE THAN 1 BILLION CHILDREN WORLDWIDE ON THE SO-CALLED “NATIONAL IMMUNIZATION DAYS” LIKE THE ONE IN INDIA. LAST YEAR, 130 MILLION INDIAN CHILDREN – 1,500 EVERY SECOND – WERE INNOCULATED. AND OF THE 2 MILLION VOLUNTEERS NEEDED TO PULL THAT OFF, 150,000 WERE ROTARIANS.
20:20 Bill Sergeant
And they're the ones that can go out there and they can help bring the vaccine to the immunization points, they help the mothers and they bring the children to the points where they get immunized, they lots of cases, they administer the vaccines themselves,
20:37 Bill Huntley
Anyone who can count to 2 and squeeze 2 drops of vaccine into the mouth of an infant is in our business.
20:45 YET THE SUCCESSES – FUNDRAISING, INNOCULATING -- ALSO SPOTLIGHT THE TRAGEDY .
20:53 HIS NAME IS LUIS. HE LIVES IN THE VILLAGE OF PICHINAKI, SOME 250 MILES OUTSIDE LIMA PERU. THOUGH HE WAS BORN 28 YEARS AFTER ALBERT SABIN INVENTED HIS POLIO VACCINE, AND 4 YEARS AFTER ROTARY JOINED THE BATTLE GLOBALLY, LIKE MANY IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD, LUIS WAS BORN TOO SOON. HE GOT POLIO IN 1991, AND WOULD BE THE LAST NATURAL CASE OF POLIO IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE. WHEN THE VIRUS PASSED FROM HIS BELLY, IT FOUND NO NEW HOST. THREE YEARS LATER, IN 1994, HEALTH OFFICIALS DECLARED A POLIO-FREE ZONE FROM THE FROZEN ARCTIC TO CAPE HORN.
21:24 BUT BY THEN, FOR AMERICANS, POLIO WAS ALREADY A DISTANT MEMORY -- THOUGH A DIFFICULT ONE TO FORGET.
ENDS: 00:31:32:00
PART 4
STARTS: 00:21:39:00
21:43 Hilma Goodrich/Polio Survivor
And when I was two, my grandpa said to my mother, hey doc, there's something wrong in that baby's shoe, must have a pebble in it, cause she limps, take her shoe off and see what's the matter. So they did and my toes had dropped.
21:57 Diane Murphy/Polio Survivor
It was obviously a very traumatic and bad experience and the only thing that I can come up with is I just blocked it all out.
22:07 1916: 27,000 cases. A third are in New York, where panicked parents ship their children to hopefully safer locales. Meanwhile, in a misguided attempt at eradication, thousands of animals suspected of carrying the disease are slaughtered.
1943: Grim news from the war front is compounded by grim news at home: 12,000 new polio cases are reported, a 3-fold increase from the previous year.
1952: Nearly 60,000 cases, more than a third of them paralytic.
22:44 EVERYONE WAS AT RISK. AND EVEN THOUGH POLIO HAD LONG BEEN CALLED “INFANTILE PARALYSIS”, PASSAGE TO ADULTHOOD BROUGHT NO IMMUNITY.
22:59 Arnold Snyder/Polio Survivor
The water was quite choppy, a number of our men were sick, nausea, and it wasn't too much gung-ho amongst us at the time.
23:15 ARNOLD SNYDER LEFT PHILADELPHIA TO FIGHT THE NAZIS. HE WAS A 1-MAN BLITZKRIEG.
23:21 Arnold Snyder
The first Silver Star I received for knocking out a German armored half-track with a 50 caliber machine gun that I borrowed, at the Battle of the Bulge, I received a Silver Star when a German tank was near us and I was able to crawl up a hill and knock out the tank. I received 5 purple hearts. I was wounded on 5 separate occasions, starting with Normandy, Battle of the Bulge, a battle in Belgium and twice in Germany.
24:01 BACK HOME, SNYDER BEGAN STUDYING PHARMACY AT TEMPLE UNIVERSITY, THEN IN THE SUMMER OF 1948, HE TOOK A LONG WEEKEND AT THE SHORE.
24:11 Arnold Snyder
I was down in Atlantic City, swimming in the ocean, and then I went to the Ritz-Carlton pool, and while I was in the pool I felt odd. The doctor diagnosed me and said I had a mild stomach abdominal virus. The abdominal virus turned out to be polio, and the next morning I couldn't walk and could hardly breathe.
24:45 POLIO IS AN INTESTINAL INFECTION CAUSED BY THIS VIRUS, AND IS SPREAD THROUGH THE FECES. INADEQUATE HAND WASHING, AND CONTAMINATED DRINKING AND SWIMMING POOL WATER HELP SPREAD THE DISEASE. MANY VICTIMS EXPERIENCE IT AS NOTHING MORE THAN A BAD COLD OR FLU.
25;02 Mary Ann Keenan/Orthopedic Surgeon
In a small percentage of people the virus gets into the nervous system and it attacks a specific cell in the spinal cord which is the anterior horn cell. And that anterior horn cell is the one that send thenerve fiber out to give the signal to the muscles and the skeletal muscles and the arms and the legs and when that happens if the nerve cell dies then that portion of the muscle becomes paralyzed.
25:31 IF THE NERVES AND MUSCLES OF THE DIAPHRAGM ARE DESTROYED, PATIENTS CAN'T BREATHE. THE IRON LUNG RAISES AND LOWERS THE CHEST USING AIR PRESSURE CREATED BY A BELLOWS.
25:23 ARNOLD SNYDER WAS AS CLOSE TO DEATH AS ANY POLIO PATIENT GETS WHEN DOCTORS PUT HIM IN AN IRON LUNG.
25:51 Arnold Snyder
Everything you do you need help to do. At that time they put me on IV and I had to ask for help for everything. You can't even wipe the perspiration off your forehead, someone had to do that for you.
26:12 THE VIRUS DIES WITHIN WEEKS OF INFECTION. DEPENDING UPON THE NERVE DAMAGE, DISABILITY CAN BE ALMOST NONE TO SEVERE. BARBARA GOLDSTEIN REMEMBERS GETTING EXTENSIVE PHYSICAL THERAPY AT A STATE HOSPITAL IN NEW YORK. IT WAS TREATMENT DESIGNED TO STIMULATE DAMAGED LIMBS AND BUILD UP THE REST OF HER BODY.
26:31 Barbara Goldstein
From what mom said I was up there for 2 years. they did the rehab there, the physical thereapy whatever . my mother moved up and stayed near me in west haverstraw, and dad came up on weekends so that she would be near me at that time I was their only child.
46:48 EVEN THOUGH NERVE DAMAGE IS OFTEN PERMANENT, THE BODY IS ABLE TO GENERATE NEW NERVE CONNECTIONS. PATIENTS OFTEN REGAIN AT LEAST SOME USE OF AFFECTED LIMBS.
26:59 FOR ARNOLD SNYDER, WAR HERO NOW PARALYZED FROM THE NECK DOWN, THE MONTHS PASSED SLOWLY.
27:06 Arnold Snyder
Well, I thought about why me? I went through that difficult scenario, what did I do wrong in life that I would have this condition. What bothered me even more so, would this be my entire future? And all day long, 24 hours a day you have the swishing and the bang, swishing and the bang, and that was the motor going on and it becomes part of your life.
27:47 SNYDER BELIEVES THAT A GUARDIAN ANGEL GOT HIM THROUGH THE WAR. AS HE LAY IMMOBILIZED, HE’D WONDER WHERE HIS GUARDIAN ANGEL HAD BEEN THE DAY HE CAUGHT POLIO. HIS FAITH BROUGHT AN ANSWER:
27:58 Arnold Snyder
The guardian angel was busy with someone else who was needed it more than me. Lord puts things on you that you can carry.
28:09 SNYDER EVENTUALLY DID LEAVE THE LUNG, AFTER 6 MONTHS. AND WITH INTENSIVE PHYSICAL THERAPY AT THE WARM SPRINGS INSTITUTE IN GEORGIA, HE WAS WALKING A MONTH LATER. ALTHOUGH HIS UPPER BODY REMAINED WEAK, SNYDER WAS ABLE TO GET HIS COLLEGE DEGREE AND WENT ON TO HAVE A SUCCESSFUL CAREER AS A PHARMACIST AT THE FAMILY STORE IN PHILADELPHIA, MARRYING AND FATHERING CHILDREN.
28:31 DIANE MURPHY WOULD LATER GRADUATE FROM COLLEGE, GET MARRIED, HAVE A BABY. BUT IN A CRUEL POSTSCRIPT TO CHILDHOOD INFECTION, SURVIVORS LIKE DIANE ARE DISCOVERING THAT THE CRIPPLING EFFECTS THEY FOUGHT TO OVERCOME IN CHILDHOOD...RETURN LATER IN LIFE.
ENDS00:287:47:00
PART 5
STARTS: 00:28:53:00
29:01 SUNDAY, DECEMBER 6TH – IMMUNIZATION DAY. BY THIS TIME TOMORROW, IF THE CAMPAIGN IS SUCCESSFUL, 125 MILLION CHILDREN WILL HAVE SWALLOWED THE TWO- DROP DOSE OF VACCINE.
29:13 FOR THE PAST SEVERAL DAYS, VOLUNTEERS HAVE BEEN GETTING THE WORD OUT ANY WAY POSSIBLE, REMINDING PEOPLE OF THE UPCOMING N-I-D.
29:23 THESE ROTARIANS HAVE JOURNEYED FROM THE MID-SIZED CITY OF UDAIPUR, LOCATED SOME 330 MILES FROM THE CAPITAL CITY OF DELHI, TO THE TOWN OF JHADOL. FROM THIS BASE OF OPERATIONS, VOLUNTEERS WILL HEAD FOR OUTLYING VILLAGES SUCH AS BOGPOORA AND TINDLE.
29:41 Chander Khamesre/Rotarian
I'm working as a jeweler in Udiapur, and I joined Rotary only a few months ago. I am happy to associate myself with this immunization program, I wish the childrens get immunized and the Rotary achieves its target of a polio-free world by the year Azgizad..
30:06 FIRST STOP: BOGPOORA, A PLACE WHERE MORNING TEA IS PREPARED ON A FIRE FUELED BY COW DUNG.
30:59 THESE CHILDREN WILL COME OF AGE IN A POLIO-FREE 21ST CENTURY. BUT THE LEGACY OF THE DISEASE WILL REMAIN, AS ORTHOPEDIC SURGEONS WORLDWIDE WILL BE KEPT BUSY TREATING THE CONSEQUENCES OF INFECTION.
31:14 THEY COME FROM ALL OVER INDIA, HOPING FOR A BRIGHTER FUTURE.
31:19 This an attempt to rectify this evil of polio all around. You see the child is being operated on here.
31;24 IT IS A SURGERY CAMP, ONE OF TWELVE DAY-LONG EVENTS HELD IN 1998. ORGANIZED AND PAID FOR BY AND INDIAN RELIGIOUS SECT AND ROTARY, IT TRANSFORMS THIS SCHOOL BUILDING INTO A HOSPITAL. THE BASIC ORTHOPEDIC SURGERY IS DESIGNED TO GET POLIO PATIENTS OFF THE GROUND AND INTO A NEW LIFE.
31:43 Girl thru translator:
My name is Huvan
I've come here to get my leg operated on
I am suffering from polio
When asked how she is different from other kids, girl starts crying
I'll feel very good after the operation, then I'll feel very good playing along with other children
32:12 ON THIS DAY, NEARLY A THOUSAND WILL COME FOR TREATMENT; 200 WILL BE OPERATED ON, WITH PRIORITY GIVEN TO YOUNGER VICTIMS WITH THE BEST CHANCE OF SUCCESS. AT 24, THIS MAN – A BAKER, BY TRADE -- IS OLDER THAN MOST.
32:27 I have faith in the operation and I think that after the operation I'll be able to do things which I was not able to do earlier, like playing and jumping around and walking around
32:40 COFFEE FUELS BOTH DOCTORS AND PATIENTS. AFTER THE SURGERY – WHICH TAKES ONLY MINUTES – CASTS ARE APPLIED AND THE PATIENTS ARE MOVED TO THE RECOVERY ROOM.
32:51 THESE PATIENTS MAY VERY WELL SEE A DRAMATIC IMPROVEMENT IN THE QUALITY OF THEIR LIVES.
BUT AS AGING AMERICAN POLIO VICTIMS ARE DISCOVERING, NEITHER ERADICATION NOR CORRECTIVE SURGERY HAS PREVENTED THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW MEDICAL CONDITION THAT’S CASTING A PAINFUL, DEBILITATING SHADOW DECADES AFTER INFECTION.
33:19FOR DIANE MURPHY, WHAT ENDED WITH SHOULDER SURGERY BEGAN AS A CASE OF THE BLAHS.
33:25 Diane Murphy
I wasn't feeling well ….i was just so tired and…feeling just so drained like a dishrag all the time, [nat burst talking to horse] my stamina and level of energy had just you know plummetted
Diane Murphy
Doctors didn't believe there was such a thing and they think because you're a woman , you're depressed and that's your problem. And they didn't want to accept or really go along with the post polio syndrome theory. I guess I wanted to go see someone who'd tell me I'm not nuts, I'm not depressed, this real.
34:12 WEDNESDAY MORNING IN THE POST POLIO CLINIC AT PHILADELPHIA’S EINSTEIN HOSPITAL. AFTER DECADES OF COPING WITH – AND OVERCOMING – THE LIMITATIONS IMPOSED BY POLIO’S OFTEN CRIPPLING EFFECTS, PATIENTS ARE DISCOVERING A CRUEL POSTSCRIPT TO CHILDHOOD INFECTION. THE MUSCLES AND NERVE CELLS THAT PICKED UP THE SLACK CAUSED BY PARALYZED LIMBS ARE LITERALLY GIVING OUT FROM OVER-USE. DOROTHY EBERLIN FIRST NOTICED THE PAIN & WEAKNESS WHILE PICKING TOMATOES IN HER GARDEN.
Here, here down the elbow.
34:45 Mary Ann Keenan
One of the best comparisons you can make for a polio survivor is with a triathlete. But someone who tries to do a triathlon every day rather than once every few months. And therein lies the problem
Barbara Goldstein
35:03 My walking was becoming less and less. I was able to do less and less, I was getting weaker in my knee area, I felt tired very often.
35:15 PATIENTS LIKE BARBARA GOLDSTEIN, IN FOR AN ANNUAL CHECKKUP, OFTEN REQUIRE SURGERY.
35:21 Mary Ann Keenan
Barbar a actually has done quite well since the time that we did her total knee surgery. She's actually gained strength and gained function. She was using all these mechanical tricks to walk before and leaning on their joints and ligaments to substitute for her muscles. And her knee was actually was bending backwards instead of frontwards and going into a severe knock kneed position. And it's always been the teaching in orthosurgery that you can't do knee replacement in somebody with a totally paralyzed leg.
35:52Alberto Esquenazi/Surgeon
She's doing very good today, no pain in the knee, no evidence of loosening of that knee joint, her leg has maintained a nice straighter posture and she's able to walk withougt complaints of pain. She does have to use a brace all the time, that is the one issue, but she's tolerated trhat very well even though she lives in warm weather in Florida.
36:14 TOLERATED IT EMOTIONALLY, AS WELL. MANY POLIO PATIENTS, WHO FOUGHT SO HARD TO BE FREE OF BRACES AND WHEELCHAIRS, HAVE A TOUGH TIME ACCEPTING THE IDEA THAT THEY’VE GOT TO SLOW DOWN BEFORE THEIR BODIES WEAR OUT FROM OVER-USE.
36:27 Mary Ann Keenan
It's not really ratchit down, back it off. It's be a more intelligent manager of your energy and your time. As a physician, I dictate notes I don't type them. I can type but it's not a good use of my time, so I have someone else do that. And that's what they need to do. So a large part of what we're trying to do is make them feel that they really do have control over their lives and process again.
36:57 Barbara Goldstein
I had to make a commitment to wear the brace all the time. From the moment I got up in the morning until I literally went to bed at night. I asked her if I got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the nigh, she sid the brace goes on. You are not to put any pressure on that leg.
37:27Mary Ann Keenan
The bracing is, we're using newer materials, innovative designs, very lightweight, not the really old heavy metal leather types of braces and we try to keep it as minimal as possible.
37:44 SHOULDERS ARE ANOTHER VULNERABLE PART OF THE BODY. SURVIVORS LIKE DIANE MURPHY FREQUENTLY TEAR THEIR ROTATOR CUFF FROM YEARS OF OVERUSE, WHETHER USING CRUTCHES, ROLLING A WHEELCHAIR – OR, IN DIANE’S CASE, PULLING HERSELF UP WHEN MOUNTING THE HORSE.
BUT DESPITE THE PAIN AND INCOVENIENCE, WHAT BEGAN AS PHYSICAL THERAPY IS NOW A DRIVING AMBITION.
38:15 Diane Murphy
She's been giving me dressage lessons -- my goal is to compete in the Paralympics in 2000
38:26 Mary Ann Keenan
Our emphasis is letting Diane be a very active woman participate in all kinds of things that she so much enjoys but doing it in a safe way so that she doesn't pay a price 15 years from now.
38:46 Mary Ann Keenan
And ultimately your health care decisions are your own. You answer for them, you pay the ultimate price for your decisions.
38:58 Diane Murphy
A lot of the people have a hard time accepting that and don't want to make any changes. And I just figured I owed that much to my family you know my son, he had a life and I just had to be the best mom I could be and I wasn't good for anybody, myself, anybody.
ENDS 00:39:29:00
PART 6
STARTS: 00:39:33:00
39:51 THE FINAL LEG OF THE TRIP FOR THIS TEAM OF VOLUNTEERS TAKES THE VACCINE INTO THE THE HILLS OF RAJASTHAN, (XFADE TO MAP) FROM BOG POORA TO TINDLE..
39:59 Dr. Moti Lal Jain
We are approaching the remote areas, a few of them we are approaching by motorcycle, a few of them we are approaching by the camel, we are taking the vaccine on the camel and our workers are going on the camels also, and a few places our workers are going on the foot.
40:35 PEOPLE HERE EEK OUT A LIVING FROM THE LAND, FARMING AND MINING; TODAY MANY WILL MAKE THE TRIP TO THE VILLAGE ON FOOT.
40:43 Rajendra Saboo/Rotary International
India has accounted for more that 50% of the work cases. One of the factors that weighs very strongly in minds of the people and leadership of the country is if the country has to rise in the committee of nations, it must eliminate polio, and it must not be an exporter of polio, and that is a challenge before the Rotarians and people of India. To my mind there is no option.
41:07RAJENDRA SABOO IS PAST PRESIDENT OF ROTARY INTERNATIONAL, AND A ROTARIAN SINCE 1961.
41:15 It has to be done, and if God is on our side, which I think is the case, we will do it. I don't see any alternative to that.
41:29 HEALTH OFFICIALS PREDICT THAT THE LAST BATTLE WILL BE FOUGHT IN AFRICA, WHERE A DISPERSED POPULATION, CIVIL WAR AND LIMITED PUBLIC HEALTH SYSTEMS FRUSTRATE THE ERADICATION EFFORT AND PROGRAMS SUCH AS THE “KICK POLIO OUT OF AFRICA” CAMPAIGN.
41:44Jonathan Magiyabe/Rotary International
I see it as a mission possible. Most of the countries of southerna africa are emerging as polio free areas.
41:53 YET EVEN IF IMMUNIZATION DAYS CAN BE SCHEDULED, HUMAN CONFLICT USUALLY CAN’T. AROUND THE WORLD, WARS HAVE OFTEN IMPEDED THE IMMUNIZATION EFFORT. INDEED, THE PERUVIAN CIVIL WAR PREVENTED THE TIMELY DELIVERY OF VACCINE TO LUIS, WHO WOULD BECOME THE LAST POLIO VICTIM IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE. OFFICIALS SAY HE WOULD AND SHOULD HAVE BEEN IMMUNIZED, BUT FIGHTING BETWEEN GOVERNMENT TROOPS AND THE SHINING PATH GUERRILLAS MADE THE JUNGLE TREK TOO DANGEROUS. THE INNOCULATIONS WERE POSTPONED AND, IN THE MEANTIME, LUIS CAUGHT THE DISEASE.
42:23 STILL, THERE ARE SUCCESSES, CALLED “DAYS OF TRANQUILITY”.
42:28 Bill Huntley/Rotary International
I was in sri lanka when we had a day of tranquility when the tamil tigers and the govt forces agreed to lay down their arms for the purpose of immunizing children and then this has happened at the height of the war in lebanon, it's happene din el salvador and several other places. So the children come first even at the time of civil strife.
42:50 Walter Dowdle
They recognize that it's for the best of their population no matter which side they happen to be on
42;58 AND AS HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF ROTARIANS HAVE SHOWN, DELIVERY IS AN ESSENTIAL PART OF THE SOLUTION. BUT THE WORLD CAN’T DRAFT THE ROTARIANS EVERY TIME IT WANTS TO TACKLE DISEASE, SO NEW DELIVERY SYSTEMS ARE NEEDED.
43:17 DR. HILARY KOPROWSKI, WHO DEVELOPED A LIVE POLIO VACCINE IN THE 1950s, IS LEADING A TEAM OF RESEARCHERS WHO WANT TO USE PLANTS TO DELIVER VACCINES. THEY’VE FIGURED OUT HOW TO PIGGYBACK THE RABIES ANTIGEN ONTO A HARMLESS PLANT VIRUS, WHICH SPINACH AND TOBACCO ABSORB THROUGH THEIR LEAVES. THE RABIES ANTIGEN SPREADS THROUGHOUT THE PLANT AND THE RESULT, FOR LAB MICE, IS A VIRTUAL VACCINE SALAD.
43:42 Vidadi Yusibov/Vaccine Researcher
And for the humans, what we will do, we plan to simply take the spinach which contains the rabies antigen and eat it as any other salad
43:;54 THE GOAL? DEVELOPING COUNTRIES COULD LITERALLY GROW THEIR OWN VACCINES AND ADMINISTER THEM AS FOOD.
ALSO NEEDED: NEW VACCINES. WORLDWIDE, THE LEADING KILLER DISEASES AREN’T CANCER OR HEART DISEASE. THEY’RE THINGS LIKE DIARRHEA, MEASLES AND MALARIA – VACCINES ARE EITHER RELATIVELY EXPENSIVE OR DON’T EXIST. COULD A SOLUTION LIE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN ENTIRELY NEW KIND OF VACCINE?
44:20 DR. DAVID WEINER’S AIDS RESEARCH IS PRODUCING TANTALIZING RESULTS. HIS TEAM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA IS WORKING WITH OTHER RESEARCHERS ON A PROJECT INVOLVING DNA THAT BASICALLY MASQUERADES AS DISEASE. IT’S A CRITICAL ADVANCE OVER VACCINES USING ACTUAL LIVE VIRUSES, WHICH RARELY – AND TRAGICALLY – CAN CAUSE THE DISEASE IN PEOPLE WHO GET THE VACCINE. WEINER’S DNA-BASED VACCINE, WHEN INJECTED INTO HUMANS, FOOLS THE BODY INTO BELIEVING IT’S BEEN INFECTED WITH THE ACTUAL VIRUS. SO FAR, BOTH HIV-POSITIVE AND HIV-NEGATIVE PEOPLE HAVE GOTTEN THE DNA INJECTIONS.
44:56 David Weiner/Vaccine Researcher
We have vaccinated infected individuals with this approach and the idea there is to stimulate their immune response so that they can better control the virus infection that they have. We've also vaccinated persons who have never been exposed to hiv and that's really what our vaccine target would be. Unexposed individuals who could contract hiv infection and in those studies we now have evidence that they produce immune responses to the vaccine.
45:36 We have absolutely no evidence that we're having a clinically significant effect in any of these studies at this point in time. The patients have developed some evidence of stimulating their immune responses, in the infected patients. And in the noninfected patients we've been able to produce an immune response in people previously had no immune response to hiv and so the principal of the vaccine, of the immunization has probably been substantiated.
46:03 STILL, PUBLIC HEALTH EXPERTS POINT OUT THAT EVEN IF YOU FOUND A CURE OR VACCINE FOR AIDS TOMORROW, THE DEVELOPING WORLD – WHERE AIDS IS MORE WIDESPREAD – WOULD HARDLY BE ABLE TO AFFORD IT. EVEN WHEN POLIO IS ERADICATED AND THE ONE AND A HALF BILLION DOLLARS CURRENTLY SPENT FIGHTING THE DISEASE COULD BE DIRECTED ELSEWHERE, A HUGE FINANCIAL GAP REMAINS.
46:23 Walter Dowdle
There is the idea that there could be two tiers of prices set up, and that's really being practiced now by some manufacturers. But the problem is, in the case of some of the newer vaccines, the cost of making those vaccines is so great that it's difficult to even see how you could set up a tiered approach that would make it affordable to these developing countries.
46:56 ONE MARKET-DRIVEN SUCCESS INVOLVES A DISEASE CALLED RIVER BLINDNESS, WHICH IS SIMILAR TO HEARTWORM IN DOGS. RIVER BLINDNESS AFFECTS THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE, MOSTLY IN AFRICA, EVERY YEAR. (nat burst dog bark) TURNS OUT THAT THE DRUG VETS USE TO PREVENT HEARTWORM STOPS THE DISEASE IN PEOPLE BEFORE BLINDNESS SETS IN. THE DRUG IS MADE BY MERCK, AND PROFITS FROM THE VETERINARY BUSINESS HAVE ENABLED MERCK TO PROMISE AN UNLIMITED SUPPLY OF THE DRUG FOR USE IN PEOPLE, FOREVER.
47:24 Walter Dowdle
So the story is that the dogs of America have made this drug available free of charge to Africa.
47:33 BUT DOWDLE POINTS OUT THAT DRUGS AREN’T THE ONLY ANSWER AND MIGHT OFTEN BE THE LAST LINE OF DEFENSE IN THE QUEST TO ERADICATE DISEASE IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD. HE ASKS WHETHER LESS DRAMATIC MEASURES CAN HAVE BROADER EFFECTS.
47:46 Walter Dowdle
What are the overall health requirements and it's very difficult to actually make decisions for them, which one can't do, but to make decisions about developing countries without taking into consideration all their needs and some of the more basic needs that we just simply take for granted.
48:06 STILL, WHEN IT COMES TO PURELY MEDICAL PROGRAMS, NO ONE DISPUTES THE VALUE OF ERADICATING POLIO, EVEN IF IT IS WAY DOWN THE LIST OF KILLER DISEASES.
48:16 Jon Andrus/World Health Organization
But unlike these other probl ems, polio is a disease that can be eradicated, so if we put in that effort today, once the disease is eradicated we won't have to put in efforts to control it, and those resources that are saved from having eradicated it can be diverted to other programs, whether it be the prevention of hepatitis B, or malaria control programs, this is the benefit by putting in the extra effort in the next couple of years.
48: 48 AND THEN THERE’S THE INVALUABLE LESSON LEARNED ABOUT HOW TO WAGE SUCH WARS, WHATEVER THE ENEMY.
48:54 Bill Huntley
Rotary has taught the world how to mibilize people to fight.
48:59 Rajendra Saboo
We all can feel that this is an emerging force which, together with the governments, would be able to tackle many other issues. So I think this would be great example as we bid goodbye to this century.
49:24 THE N-I-D IS WINDING DOWN. VOLUNTEERS GO FROM DOOR TO DOOR ON THE CHANCE THAT SOME CHILD, SOMEWHERE DIDN’T GET THE VACCINE EARLIER IN THE DAY. WHEN THE DAY IS DONE, 136 MILLION CHILDREN WILL HAVE BEEN VACCINATED – 11 MILLION MORE THAN EXPECTED. THE FEAT WILL BE REPEATED 6 WEEKS LATER AS A PRECAUTION.
49:43 HEALTH OFFICIALS SAY INDIA – AND THE REST OF THE WORLD –- REMAIN ON TARGET IN THE QUEST TO WIPE OUT THE VIRUS BY THE YEAR 2000, THOUGH IT WILL TAKE YEARS TO CERTIFY THAT POLIO IS NO LONGER A THREAT. AND WHILE IT’S POSSIBLE THE EFFORT WILL FAIL TO MEET ITS SHORT TERM GOAL, THOSE WAGING THE WAR VOW NOT TO SURRENDER.
ENDS:00:51:00:00