Colorado man eager to see the end of polio

DENVER - A Colorado man who contracted polio in the early 1950s says the world is on the verge of eradicating it. Grant Wilkins has worked with Rotary International on its Polio Plus program since the mid 1980s when there were roughly 1,000 new polio cases a day worldwide. Now, there's an average of less than 1,000 new cases a year.

"We're just about that far from getting the job done," Wilkins said, putting his index finger and thumb about an inch apart. "We're on the 99-and-a-half yard line. We haven't scored the touchdown yet."

Wilkins came down with polio in 1951, had a surgery for his type of the disease, and after having his vocal cords paralyzed for a period of time, he regained full use of his voice and has physically done well since then. His wife, who came down with a different form of polio, was paralyzed from her head down for 13 years before finally dying from polio-related complications.

"You can imagine what it does to a family life," he said. "She couldn't go to school, she couldn't hug her kids."

Wilkins says of all the people who were in the polio ward with him at the Colorado Medical Center (now the University of Colorado Hospital) in 1951, he's the only one who's been alive for the last 30-plus years. Dr. Jonas Salk developed the polio vaccine shortly thereafter and it was distributed widely throughout America in the mid-1950s. The disease has been eradicated here since then, and now only exists in Afghanistan, India, Pakistan and Nigeria.

"The wild virus is one plane ride away from your children and grandchildren," said Wilkins, who has traveled around the world to help immunize children. "It's [still] the biggest childhood crippler of any disease in the world."

Rotarians have provided hundreds of millions of dollars in the fight, as has the Gates Foundation. Their efforts have led to the immunization of 2 billion children in the world, fighting through challenges like access to remote areas and debunking myths about the impact of the polio vaccine.

"We've saved 1 to 2 million children from death from polio," he said. "We've saved 8 to 10 million children from being paralyzed."

In the history of the world, only one fatal disease has ever been completely eradicated and that was smallpox. Wilkins says it's time for Rotary to work with groups like UNICEF, the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to finish the job and move on to other pressing needs for kids worldwide, things like providing clean water to drink.

"Maybe by the end of this year, maybe," he said. "[If not], hopefully next year, the job will be done."

For more information on Rotary Polio Plus, visit http://www.rotary.org/en/serviceAndFellowship/Polio/Pages/ridefault.aspx.