UT Professor’s Work Sparks Stepped-Up Fight Against Polio
Talk about what starts here changing the world — a UT professor’s research could lead to billion-dollar support for wiping a disease off the face of the earth.
David Oshinsky’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Polio: An American Story, has helped inspire Bill Gates to put eliminating polio among his top philanthropic priorities.
Gates read the book and was “very taken with it,” a consultant to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation told the Austin American-Statesman.
Oshinsky will appear with Gates on Monday in a discussion, moderated by Diane Sawyer, about the foundation’s plans. (Watch it here at 8:30 a.m. Central Standard Time.)
Only one other disease — smallpox — has ever officially been eradicated from the world. (Although the cattle-killing disease rinderpest is expected to be declared eliminated in May.)
Despite the challenges of eradicating polio worldwide, including getting countries like Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan to cooperate, Oshinsky is optimistic.
“If everyone gets behind us,” he said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if we wiped out polio in less than five years.”
There has been a 99 percent reduction in polio since 1998, when it was causing paralysis in 1,000 children per day. That year, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative was formed.
Gates is said to be even more optimistic than Oshinsky — he says he believes it can be eliminated in all but one place within three years.
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3 Comments
Although I am proud that a Professor at the University of Texas, my alma mater, has helped in the eradication of polio, his book was published in 2005 by the Oxford Press (Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 1 edition (April 12, 2005)), while Rotary International has been working towards this goal for more than 20 years. See link: http://www.gatesfoundation.org/gates-award-global-health/Pages/2002-rotary-international.aspx By 2002 Rotary had raised over $468 million dollars themselves, as described in the Gates Foundation commendation.
To not have mentioned Rotary in this article was a significant omission of relevant information.
I hope in the future you will give credit to all that are due credit, alongside the good works of those affiliated with U.T.
For more information about Rotary International’s efforts to eradicate Polio you can read this article from the Gate’s Foundation Website, http://www.gatesfoundation.org/grantee-profiles/Pages/rotary-international.aspx and this article from Rotary International’s website, http://www.rotary.org/en/EndPolio/Pages/learn.aspx
Keith Housholder, "93"
Texas Exes Life Member
Rotarian, Marshfield Rotary Club, Marshfield, MO
Great note, Keith. While our blog and magazine do tend to examine issues and news events through a UT lens, it is true that David Oshinsky is a comparative newcomer to the issue of polio, while Rotary International has donated millions toward fighting it over the course of decades. Thanks for pointing that out.
An exciting update: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41626296/ns/health-infectious_diseases/