Anti-polio quest may go international

Dipping his feet in the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday, Ramesh Ferris marked the end of his cross-country Cycle to Walk Campaign for polio, a disease which continues to infect people around the world 53 years after a vaccination was introduced.

Dipping his feet in the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday, Ramesh Ferris marked the end of his cross-country Cycle to Walk Campaign for polio, a disease which continues to infect people around the world 53 years after a vaccination was introduced.

“The reality is children continue to die and become paralyzed by polio and we, as a richer country, need to be a global leader in the fight,“ Ferris told the Star this morning.

“Just because the campaign has ended here in Cape Spear (Newfoundland and Labrador), doesn’t mean that our commitment and drive to work towards a polio-free world has to stop.“

And for the past 175 days, Ferris, a polio survivor, hand-cycled 7,110 km through hundreds of communities, with the goal educating as many as possible and raising $1 million.

While Ferris came up short on the fundraising - garnering just under $300,000 - he has touched the lives of thousands and spread his message that the battle against polio has not been won.

“There’s lots of different things I’ll remember, but the common thing was the shock people had when they saw there was a polio campaign,“ Ferris said.

“Many people are under the impression that we’ve already eradicated polio.“

While the disease can result in paralysis, particularly for children under five, it can also be deadly.

Despite Dr. Jonas Salk’s discovery of a vaccine, dispensed in mass vaccinations across North America beginning in 1955, polio remains endemic in Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, while 11 per cent of Canadians are not vaccinated.

If nothing is done, it’s expected that 10 million people worldwide will become paralyzed in 40 years.

“As long as there’s a case of polio in our world, we are not polio-free, so it’s important that everyone receives the vaccination, even adults,“ said Ferris.

“People think polio was just an issue in the ‘50s, but historically, polio is the leading cause of disability and in 1953, Canada had some of the highest rates of polio per capita in the world.“

Yesterday, Ferris was received at St. John’s city hall by scores of well-wishers. They included Mayor Dennis O’Keefe, Newfoundland Lt.-Gov. John Crosbie and Yukon Commissioner Geraldine Van Bibber.

“You have not let disability slow you down,“ said Crosbie, a former federal Conservative cabinet minister who visited the Yukon in the 1980s.

“What you’ve just done is a great human achievement, and bringing attention back to polio is an important and noble cause.“

Van Bibber was among several Yukoners who flew to the Atlantic province to offer a hero’s welcome.

“It was just wonderful, and to have so many Yukoners here to be part of that,“ said a humbled Ferris.

“It just means so much and was a wonderful way to end my journey.

“It’s great to know that there’s so many Yukoners involved in Cycle-to-Walk .... This truly is a Yukon-based project and it’s now a national project and it just means so much to call Whitehorse home.“

But according to the 28-year-old ambassador for Yukon and Whitehorse, the bigger journey lay ahead.

“Now, I’m even more driven to carry the message on an international level and in our own country, than ever before,“ he said. “And I’m excited that so many people have learned ... we have the ability to eradicate this disease.“

On the morning of Oct. 9, Ferris will host a news conference at the Westmark Whitehorse Hotel before heading to the Yukon Transportation Museum to meet up with local students.

From there, the group will cycle down Robert Service Way to the SS Klondike before finishing at the Yukon government administration building for a lunchtime reception. All are welcomed to attend reception, said Ferris.

The fight against polio is the largest public health initiative in world history, but annual funding shortfalls are preventing complete success.

Donations to Ferris’ campaign, aimed at eradicating polio and rehabilitating survivors, can still be made online at http://www.cycletowalk.com.

The effects of polio have been known since prehistory, as Egyptian paintings and carvings depict otherwise healthy people with withered limbs.

In 1789, British doctor Michael Underwood detailed the first clinical description, refering to polio as a “debility of the lower extremities.“

Before the 20th century, infections were rarely seen in infants before six months of age, with most cases occuring in children before their fourth birthday.

Around the turn of this century, small outbreaks began appearing in Europe and North America, with the worst appearing in 1952 in the United States, when 58,000 cases killed more than 3,000 and left more than 21,000 with disabling paralysis.

With widespread use of Salk’s poliovirus vaccine in the mid-‘50s, the the incidence of polio declined dramatically in many industrialized countries and a global effort to eradicate the disease, led by the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the Rotary Foundation, began in 1988.

Despite these efforts, polio continues to threaten the health and well-being of people, particularly in the developing world.