Promotion of Zinc Tablets

Speeches :

Promotion of Zinc Tablets

(Speech Delivered by Trustee & PRID Ashok Mahajan at National Orientation Polio Meet on 7^th Agust, 2009 at New Delhi)

There’s a saying, “There's a difference between interest and commitment. When you're interested in doing something, you do it only when circumstance permit. When you're committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results.”

Isn’t this saying absolutely true? No matter how much efforts, hard work and sweat we might have given to a particular task, in the absence of any tangible and apparent result, everything seems to just fade away. Ultimately result is what matters.

Our long-drawn battle against polio in India has reached an impasse. Despite being so close to the finishing line, we are still in a way quite far from it. The credibility of our polio campaign is at stake today as a result of continued transmission of the polio virus in the high risk endemic areas of U.P. and Bihar, in spite of high coverage with multiple doses of OPV to the reported polio cases. Various biological and ecological factors such as high population density, poor sanitation and hygiene conditions, diarrhea along with unavailability of safe drinking water and poor nutrition, cause persistence in these regions, by not only facilitating transmission of the polio virus, but also severely compromising the efficacy of the OPV.

Every year approximately 5 lakh people die as a result of diarrhea and dehydration. A large chunk of these people are children. In the majority of the cases, this is preventable through exclusive breastfeeding, improved hygiene especially hand hygiene and sanitation, access to clean water and avoidance of the practice of open defecation, yet diarrhea is still one of the leading causes of death among children under five. There seems to be a direct relationship between diarrhea and the efficacy of polio vaccine. Kids suffering from diarrhea excrete the intake of polio vaccine dose even before it can build immunity in their body. Higher the number of diarrhea cases among children, greater will be the inefficacy of OPV and hence more will be the number of polio cases.

The Rotary community has invested a lot in the polio campaign so far in terms of – time, efforts and money. But still the polio virus persists and keeps on getting transmitted. It is as though we are treating the symptom and not the cause of a disease. Unless we strike at the root cause we won’t be able to curb the menace of polio, once and for all.

It has been recommended that the use of zinc tablet and oral rehydration salt solution (ORS) during diarrhea is a successful two-pronged approach to reduce the duration and severity of the episode and the risk of subsequent diarrhea in children.

Reduction in the number of diarrhea cases will ensure better efficacy of the oral polio vaccine and hence, will lower down the number of polio cases significantly.

In the final lap of our polio program, let us support the recommendations given by the Govt. of India and wholeheartedly execute the Zinc and ORS campaign.

I look forward to working with you to uphold our responsibility of making Rotary realize its vision of a polio-free world.

The future of Rotary is now truly in our hands.

Ashokmahajan.com

Service above Self

Speeches :