S.Res. 270 — Introduced in Senate

III 113th CONGRESS 1st Session S. RES. 270 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES October 16, 2013Mr. Kirk (for himself, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Cochran, Mr. Wicker, Mr. Rubio, Mr. Boozman, Mrs. Shaheen, Mr. Begich, Mr. Isakson, and Mr. Murphy) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations RESOLUTION Supporting the goals and ideals of World Polio Day and commending the international community and others for their efforts to prevent and eradicate polio. Whereas October 24th of each year is recognized internationally as World Polio Day; 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 paralysis of respiratory muscles; Whereas polio was once one of the most dreaded diseases in the United States, killing thousands of people annually in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and leaving thousands more with permanent disabilities, 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 the incidence of polio in the United States; Whereas, although the United States has been free from polio since 1979, this preventable disease still needlessly lays victim to children and adults in several countries where challenges, such as active conflict and lack of infrastructure, impede access to vaccines; 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 the eradication of polio is the highest priority of Rotary International, a global association founded in 1905 in Chicago, Illinois, that is now headquartered in Evanston, Illinois, and has more than 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 to, and volunteered countless hours in, the global fight against polio; Whereas Rotary International, the World Health Organization, the United States Government, the United Nations Children’s Fund (commonly known as “UNICEF”), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the United Nations Foundation have joined together with national governments to successfully reduce cases of polio by more than 99 percent since 1988, from more than 350,000 reported cases in 1988 to 223 reported cases in 2012; Whereas polio was recently eliminated in India and is now endemic only in Nigeria, Pakistan, and Afghanistan; Whereas terrorist and militant groups continue to target and murder health care workers who seek to save the lives of children; Whereas the sanctity and neutrality of health care workers must be respected, as these workers deliver the most basic of life-saving interventions to children and communities; Whereas the recent polio outbreak in the Horn of Africa, comprising Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya, continues to result in new cases of the disease, exacerbating the protracted humanitarian crisis in the region and highlighting the urgent need to finally eradicate polio before progress is lost; Whereas countries around the world are placing an unprecedented emphasis on polio eradication, including by implementing Emergency Action Plans to boost vaccination coverage in Nigeria, Pakistan, and Afghanistan; Whereas the Global Polio Eradication Initiative has developed the Polio Eradication and Endgame Strategic Plan 2013–2018 (referred to in this preamble as the Endgame Strategy) to capitalize on the opportunity to eradicate all polio disease; Whereas the Endgame Strategy also outlines a legacy planning process to ensure that lessons learned in the effort to eradicate polio, as well as the assets and infrastructure built in support of that effort, are transitioned to benefit other development goals and global health priorities, including the continued delivery of health services to the most vulnerable children in the world; Whereas the global effort to eradicate polio is the largest internationally coordinated public health effort in history, with a network of over 20,000,000 volunteers worldwide; and Whereas the eradication of polio is imminently achievable and will be a victory shared by all of humanity: Now, therefore, be it That the Senate— (1) supports the goals and ideals of World Polio Day; (2) commends the international community and others for their efforts in vaccinating children around the world against polio and for the tremendous strides made toward eradicating the disease; (3) encourages and supports the international community of governments and nongovernmental organizations in remaining committed to the eradication of polio; (4) condemns the deplorable actions of terrorist and militant groups that murder innocent health care workers who are striving to save the lives of children around the world; (5) urges the international community of governments to strengthen the support and security protection of health care workers who risk their lives to provide polio vaccinations; and (6) encourages continued commitment and funding by the United States Government and international donors to the global effort to rid the world of polio.