Dr. Jason Parham, Associate Professor of Medicine and Associate Vice Chair for Quality, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center spoke to the Rotary Club of North Jackson at its October 31, 2017, meeting. The subject of Dr. Parham's speech was Polio, how it is transmitted, its impact, efforts to eliminate it and their results. According to Dr. Parham, the number of polio cases worldwide has decreased from 350,000 annually in the mid-1980s to 12 this far in 2017. The only places that still have wild polio cases are Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. A total of $450 million has been pledged by Rotary International, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and others to finish the job.
Dr. Parham discussed the effect of polio on humans, the history of vaccines. He showed photos of the primary vaccine researchers Salk & Sabin and of a room full of iron lungs from the 1950s. He summarized the effort to eliminate the disease by saying that the progress shows the effectiveness of a well designed and implemented vaccination campaign. Dr. Parham is shown in the accompanying photos at the head table (left) preceding his speech with Rotarian Matt Monsour who introduced him and with Club President Witt Ruffin (left) and again with Matt Monsour (right) following his speech. We thank Dr. Parham for his presentation and for his work in infectious diseases for the State of Mississippi.
