Indian
doctors to conduct 400 polio corrective surgeries in Nigeria
A
team of 24 doctors and volunteers would fly out of Mumbai for a 10 days medical
mission to conduct polio corrective surgeries in Abuja, Nigeria.
The
team of Rotarian doctors comprising orthopedic surgeon, pathologist,
anesthesiologists along with a team of volunteers would fly on 2nd
December morning from Mumbai to Abuja for the medical mission which is being
conducted jointly by the Indian and Nigerian Rotarians assisted by The Rotary
Foundation.
This
India-Nigeria Polio Surgeries medical mission is dedicated to combat polio,
generate awareness, and help the polio-affected population through corrective
surgeries, informed former world president of Rotary International, Rajendra K.
Saboo, who conceived the inter-continental medical missions in 1998 when he
took a team of Indian doctors to Uganda.
The
biggest challenge today is to end polio from the world and protect our
children, he added. Nigeria is one of the three remaining endemic
countries in the world along with Pakistan and Afghanistan, and so long as
there is even one country in the world affected by polio, it would continue to
endanger the lives of the children everywhere, he said.
This
polio corrective surgery project is different; since it is for the first time a
single speciality surgical team is going to Africa.
“Certain
sections of the population in Nigeria, which is still a polio endemic country,
are resisting immunization efforts due to several misconceptions, and we hope
that an initiative like polio corrective surgeries would help us send a strong
message to the people and create an atmosphere of faith in this world-wide
efforts to immunize children against polio,” Mr Saboo informed.
Similar
situation in India was tackled in UP and Bihar through Rotary’s efforts to
conduct similar camp in which nearly 4,000 children and adults underwent
polio-corrective surgeries, he added.
The
team of Rotarian doctors includes 12 ortho-surgeons, five anesthesiologists,
one pathologist, one general surgeon, and five volunteers from Andhra Pradesh,
Bihar, Chandigarh, Himachal, Haryana, Maharashtra, Kerala and Uttrakhand.
“India
as a country was always looked upon as a nation that would be looking for help
from the outside help but with a whole lot of talent and expertise available in
the medical field, the medical mission provided us the opportunity to reach
across the borders with medical care for the people in need,” Rajendra K. Saboo
says.
The
doctors from India would be taking along specialized surgical equipment,
medical supplies and would also train the local doctors in the procedures as
well as making of prosthetic limbs,
Earlier
multi-specialty medical missions went to Uganda, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Tanzania,
Zambia, Malawi, Swaziland, Cambodia, Madagascar, Lesotho, Congo, Rwanda, etc.
besides major medical camps have been organised by the team of doctors in the
interiors of Madhya Pradesh.
Rotary
International is a volunteer organization of business, professional, and
community leaders who provide humanitarian service and help to build goodwill
and peace in the world. There are approximately 1.2 million Rotary club members
belonging to 33,000 Rotary clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical
areas. Learn more at www.rotary.org.
