[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 473 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

112th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. RES. 473

Commending Rotary International and others for their efforts to prevent 
                          and eradicate polio.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 24, 2012

Mr. Durbin (for himself, Mr. Kirk, Mr. Brown of Ohio, Mr. Menendez, Mr. 
 Lugar, and Mr. Lautenberg) submitted the following resolution; which 
           was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Commending Rotary International and others for their efforts to prevent 
                          and eradicate polio.

Whereas polio is a highly infectious disease that primarily affects children and 
        for which there is no known cure;
Whereas polio can leave survivors permanently disabled from muscle paralysis of 
        the limbs and occasionally leads to a particularly difficult death 
        through the paralysis of respiratory muscles;
Whereas polio was once one of the most dreaded diseases in the United States, 
        killing thousands annually in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and 
        leaving thousands more with permanent disability, including the 32nd 
        President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt;
Whereas severe polio outbreaks in the 1940s and 1950s caused panic in the United 
        States, as parents kept children indoors, public health officials 
        quarantined infected individuals, and the Federal Government restricted 
        commerce and travel;
Whereas 1952 was the peak of the polio epidemic in the United States, with more 
        than 57,000 people affected, 21,000 of whom were paralyzed and 3,000 of 
        whom died;
Whereas safe and effective polio vaccines, including the Inactivated Polio 
        Vaccine (commonly known as ``IPV''), developed in 1952 by Jonas Salk, 
        and the Oral Polio Vaccine (commonly known as ``OPV''), developed in 
        1957 by Albert Sabin, rendered polio preventable and contributed to the 
        rapid decline of polio incidence in the United States;
Whereas polio, a preventable disease that the United States has been free from 
        since 1979, still needlessly lays victim to children and adults in 
        several countries where challenges such as active conflict and lack of 
        infrastructure hamper access to vaccines;
Whereas the eradication of polio is the highest priority of Rotary 
        International, a global association that was founded in 1905 in Chicago, 
        Illinois, is currently headquartered in Evanston, Illinois, and has 
        1,200,000 members in more than 170 countries;
Whereas Rotary International and its members (commonly known as ``Rotarians'') 
        have contributed more than $1,000,000,000 and volunteered countless 
        hours in the global fight against polio;
Whereas the Federal Government is the leading public sector donor to the Global 
        Polio Eradication Initiative and provides technical and operational 
        leadership to this global effort through the work of the Centers for 
        Disease Control and the United States Agency for International 
        Development;
Whereas Rotary International, the World Health Organization, the United States 
        Government, the United Nations Children's Fund (commonly known as 
        ``UNICEF''), and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have joined 
        together with national governments to successfully reduce cases of polio 
        by more than 99 percent since 1988, from 350,000 reported cases in 1988 
        to fewer than 700 reported cases in 2011;
Whereas polio was recently eliminated in India and is now endemic only in 
        Nigeria, Pakistan, and Afghanistan; and
Whereas the eradication of polio is imminently achievable and will be a victory 
        shared by all of humanity: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the Senate--
            (1) commends Rotary International and others for their 
        efforts in vaccinating children around the world against polio 
        and for the tremendous strides made toward eradicating the 
        disease once and for all;
            (2) encourages the international community of governments 
        and non-governmental organizations to remain committed to the 
        elimination of polio; and
            (3) encourages continued commitment and funding by the 
        United States Government to the global effort to rid the world 
        of polio.
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