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  The links are no longer being updated.

REMARKS BY:	DONNA E. SHALALA,  SECRETARY OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES
PLACE:		Progress of Nations Report, 1999, UNICEF, New York City, New York
DATE:     	July 22, 1999

I'm proud to be part of UNICEF's launching of the Progress of Nations, 1999. And I'm pleased that one of the themes of this report is the eradication of polio.

Two years ago, I visited India, a country that shoulders 70 percent of the world's remaining polio burden. I happened to be there during one of India's immunization events. I visited a clinic outside of Delhi - a city where millions of children were receiving immunizations against polio. These children weren't facing a battle to thrive -- but simply to survive.

As I looked into the eyes of some of those youngsters, I saw what it means to contribute to the global elimination of polio. Certainly it means carrying on a fight we won in our own country long ago. But what it really means is that young girls and boys - from Delhi to Denver -- will be able to run and play with their brothers and sisters. It means they will never see their dreams trapped inside one of these iron lungs.

But if we want to ensure that no child is ever again sentenced to life in an iron lung, then we must wipe polio from the face of the earth by the end of the year 2000. It's a goal that's within our reach - but only when we remember two simple but important truths about polio.

The first is that polio not only can be beaten -- it is being beaten. Thanks to massive immunization efforts, we've entirely erased polio from the Western Hemisphere, East Asia and the Pacific Basin. More than 150 countries around the world are polio-free today. And since the global community began the campaign to eradicate polio ten years ago, the number of reported cases has decreased by 85 percent. That's good.but it's not good enough.

And that's where the second truth about polio comes in. Because, so long as polio exists anywhere, it poses a threat to children everywhere. The bottom line is that infectious diseases know no borders - and neither can our crusade against them. That's why beating polio worldwide isn't just a humanitarian gesture -- but an investment in the health of our own children.

Given the challenges to eradication: war, civil unrest, poor sanitary conditions, population density, and climate, there's no question that our efforts to destroy polio must be strengthened. Only by accelerating surveillance and immunization activities can we wipe out polio once and for all. This means increasing the number of National Immunization Days and making house-to-house immunizations in countries where polio still has a stronghold.

That's why, through our Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Agency for International Development, the United States is providing over $90 million, this year alone, for vaccines and technical support to combat polio around the world.

But we cannot do the job alone. To win this war we'll need some strong allies. Because we share a common future, we must stand on common ground. It's teamwork.

It's efforts like that of Rotary International under the outstanding leadership of President Carlo Ravizza; leadership and vision like that of UNICEF and the World Health Organization; and strong support from governments around the globe that will help finally close the book on polio.

I've no doubt that - together - we can eliminate polio from the world by the end of 2000. We can do it. We must do it. And I'm convinced that we will do it. Thank you.