This is an archive page. The links are no longer being updated.

REMARKS BY: DONNA E. SHALALA, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
PLACE: ERADICATE POLIO EVENT, UNITED STATES CAPITOL BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D.C.
DATE: MAY 6, 1998

"Eradicating Polio Throughout the World"

Last year, I had the opportunity to visit India, a country that shoulders 60 percent of the world's remaining polio burden. I happened to be there during one of India's "National Immunization Days." Millions of children under five were being immunized against polio to not only thrive-but to survive. As I looked into the eyes of many of those youngsters, I saw what American aid to eliminate polio really means. It means they can have a future free from the confines of iron braces or iron lungs...a future where their bodies and spirits can soar.

In a few minutes, Surgeon General Satcher and Dr. Ornstein from the CDC are going to talk about our worldwide efforts to eradicate polio and infectious diseases. But I want to touch on two simple, but largely forgotten truths about polio in America. First, we've wiped polio off the face of America, but countless children around the world still face the prospect of paralyzed bodies and paralyzed dreams. This is particularly true throughout Africa-which suffers half of all new polio cases. Unfortunately, the countries with polio also lack sufficient resources to immunize all of their children. As a humanitarian nation, we will not turn a blind eye to their plight. Indifference is the very heart of inhumanity...And as Fitzgerald said, "America is a willingness of the heart."

But the American investment to eliminate polio in the world isn't just a humanitarian gesture. It's also an investment in the health of our own children. Because there's a second truth about polio: As long as polio remains a contagious disease and continues to exist in the world, it remains an American problem. As Dr. Harry Hull, of the World Health Organization has noted, "No nation can truly be free of polio, until all nations are free." As long as polio exists, we must continue to immunize generation after generation of our children against it-And we must live with the risk that someday, somehow, somewhere, even one of our children will contract it. It's a risk that's simply too large to take.

Like we did with smallpox, we must try to eliminate polio from the face of the earth-consign it to the history books once and for all, so that it never again threatens a single child or troubles a single nation. Since the World Health Organization began its campaign to eliminate polio ten years ago, the number of reported cases has decreased by 90 percent, worldwide. 90 percent is just not good enough-not when 100 percent is within our reach. For the children of the world, for our own children, our purpose tonight is simple-it's a call to arms to finish the job...To save millions of children from polio's tears, and millions of parents from polio's fears...And to bring about universal immunization against polio.

The United States has provided substantial funding for global immunization efforts. We are spending 47 million dollars for worldwide polio eradication this fiscal year. And just last Friday, the President signed a supplemental budget bill that includes and additional 9 million specifically earmarked for eradication efforts in Africa.

But we can't eliminate polio alone. We need every member of the "United States Coalition for the Eradication of Polio," as well as national governments, health organizations and the private sector. We need everyone to continue to work together to attack polio with a global strategy. There are many dangers we can't prevent entirely. Polio is one threat we can do something about. We have the weapons. We have the wisdom. To finish the job, we need only the will and the wallet. As the poet said, "Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance." We are stronger than polio. Let's persevere until it's gone.