The world is so close to ending polio.
世界离消灭脊髓灰质炎已经很近了。
Since the start of the global eradication effort in 1988, the number of polio cases worldwide has fallen 99.9 percent.
自1988年全球消灭脊髓灰质炎行动开展以来，世界范围内脊髓灰质炎病例的数量下降了99.9%。
19 million people who would have otherwise been paralyzed are now walking today because of vaccines. And 1.5 million people are alive who would have otherwise died from the disease.
1900万原本会瘫痪的人现在因为疫苗而能够正常行走，150万原本会因此疾病丧生的人现在还活着。
Much of the credit for this progress goes to the thousands of polio workers who have gone door to door vaccinating more than 3 billion children over the last 33 years.
这一进展在很大程度上要归功于数千名脊髓灰质炎工作者的工作，他们在过去的33年里挨家挨户为超过30多亿儿童接种了疫苗。
October 24 is World Polio Day and to mark the occasion I’d like to share the story of one of these dedicated polio fighters.
10月24日是世界脊髓灰质炎日，为纪念这一天，我想与大家分享其中一位致力于抗击脊髓灰质炎战斗者的故事。
Her name is Shumaila Rehmani.
她的名字叫苏梅拉•雷玛妮（音译）
Shumaila is a polio vaccinator in Pakistan, which is one of the two countries in the world—the other is Afghanistan—where the wild poliovirus is still endemic.
苏梅拉是巴基斯坦的一名脊髓灰质炎疫苗接种员。巴基斯坦是世界上仅有的两个野生脊髓灰质炎病毒仍在流行的国家之一，另一个国家是阿富汗。
Shumaila’s job is to deliver the polio vaccine to every child under age five in the community she serves. While that probably sounds like a straightforward job, what it takes to get it done is not. Reaching every child requires hard work, meticulous planning, and patience.
苏梅拉的工作是为她所服务的社区中每一个5岁以下的儿童接种脊髓灰质炎疫苗。虽然这份工作听起来不复杂，但实际执行起来却并非易事。要使疫苗覆盖每一个孩子，需要努力的工作、细致的规划以及耐心的对待。
During polio immunization drives in Pakistan, Shumaila sets out on foot early in the morning with a cooler filled with vaccines and a detailed plan for all the homes she needs to visit. Then she begins knocking on doors to give the oral polio vaccine drops to every child.
在巴基斯坦脊髓灰质炎免疫接种行动中，苏梅拉一大早就徒步出发，带着装满疫苗的冷藏箱和一个对需要走访家庭的详细规划，然后开始挨家挨户敲门，为每个孩子提供口服脊髓灰质炎疫苗。
The overwhelming majority of families she visits want their children to be vaccinated. Some parents, however, out of fear or a lack of information, refuse to have their children vaccinated.
她所走访的绝大数家庭都希望他们的孩子接种疫苗。然而，有些家长或处于恐惧或缺乏信息，拒绝让孩子接种疫苗。
But Shumaila doesn’t give up.
但是苏梅拉没有放弃。
She talks with the mothers and fathers, answering all their questions about polio and reassuring them that the vaccine is safe and effective. She also works with community and religious leaders to speak with families about the importance of vaccination.
她与那些父母进行沟通，解答他们关于脊髓灰质炎的疑问，让他们相信脊髓灰质炎疫苗是安全且有效的。她还与社区和宗教领袖合作，向家庭讲述疫苗接种的重要性。
Progress can be slow. In the community she serves, Shumaila says this year she initially had more than 250 families refuse vaccinations. But today, because of her efforts to work closely with the families, all but four of them have had their children vaccinated. And she continues to talk with those families to encourage them to get vaccinated.
工作进展可能是缓慢的。在她所服务的社区，今年最初有250多个家庭拒绝接种疫苗。由于她努力与这些家庭紧密合作，到目前为止，除了4个家庭外，所有家庭的孩子都得到了疫苗接种。她仍在与未接种疫苗的家庭进行沟通，鼓励他们接种疫苗。
And thanks to the thousands of dedicated health workers like Shumaila and the leadership of Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan, there’s been just one case of wild polio in Pakistan so far this year, compared with 84 in 2020.
感谢数千名像苏梅拉这样敬业的卫生工作者的努力以及巴基斯坦总理伊姆兰•汗的领导，目前巴基斯坦只有一例野生脊髓灰质炎病例，而在2020年则有84例。
While the incredible efforts of Shumaila and other polio fighters have brought us to the brink of a polio-free world, COVID-19 has created new challenges. The pandemic has disrupted polio campaigns and routine immunizations in many parts of the world, causing outbreaks of other forms of polio to crop up in Africa and Asia.
苏梅拉和其他脊髓灰质炎战斗人员了不起的工作把我们带到无脊髓灰质炎世界的边缘，然而，新冠肺炎疫情又带来了新的挑战。大流行扰乱了世界上许多地方根除脊髓灰质炎的行动和常规的免疫规划，导致非洲和亚洲暴发了其他形式的脊髓灰质炎。
That’s why the global polio program adapted its approach to help contain the spread of COVID-19 while also working to end polio. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative used its workforce and laboratory and disease surveillance network to respond to the pandemic, investigating suspected COVID cases, coordinating response operations, and training health care workers. In Pakistan, the national polio team now operates a toll-free number for anyone who wants to speak with a doctor about COVID, polio, or get any questions answered about routine immunization. They have received more than 17 million calls during the pandemic.
这就是为什么全球消除脊髓灰质炎行动要调整其方法，在帮助遏制新冠病毒传播的同时，来消除脊髓灰质炎。全球消灭脊髓灰质炎行动（GPEI）利用其工作人员、实验室和疾病监测网络来应对大流行、调查疑似新冠肺炎病例、协调应对行动、并培训卫生工作者。在巴基斯坦，国家脊髓灰质炎团队运营着一个免费电话，为任何想与医生沟通新冠病毒、脊髓灰质炎、或其他任何有关免疫规划问题的人提供交流机会。他们在新冠病毒大流行期间共接到超过1700万个电话。
Like other polio workers, Shumaila has used her community relationships to raise awareness of COVID, teach families how to stay safe, and provide handwashing and hygiene lessons. This has made for longer days, but Shumaila says it’s easy to stay motivated. As a mother of three children herself, she is driven by her dream of a day when polio will no longer be a threat to her children or any child in Pakistan.
如同其他脊髓灰质炎工作者，苏梅拉利用她与社区的关系来提高人们对于新冠病毒的认识，教导每个家庭如何保持安全，并提供关于洗手和个人卫生方面的课程。这项工作持续了很久，但苏梅拉表示，保持动力并不难。作为三个孩子的母亲，她梦想有一天脊髓灰质炎将不再威胁到她的孩子或巴基斯坦的任何一个孩子的健康。
It’s a day she knows will come soon, she says. Again and again since the start of the global polio eradication effort, one country after the next has eliminated this crippling disease from within their borders. Less than a decade ago, for example, Nigeria accounted for more than half of all wild polio cases worldwide. But last year, Nigeria, along with the 47 countries in the African region, were certified free of the wild poliovirus.
她说她知道这一天终将到来。在全球消除脊髓灰质炎行动开展以来，一个又一个国家在其境内消灭了这一致残疾病。在不到十年前，尼日利亚的病例还占到全球所有野生脊髓灰质炎病例的一半以上。然而去年，尼日利亚与非洲47个国家一同被证实已经消除野生脊髓灰质炎病毒了。
With Afghanistan recently announcing it would conduct a nationwide polio campaign in November—the first in over three years to reach all children in the country—and Pakistan’s continued commitment to eradication, the final two polio endemic countries will hopefully soon follow others on the path to ending wild polio.
阿富汗近日宣布将在11月开展全国性消除脊髓灰质炎行动，这是三年多来首次覆盖该国所有儿童的行动，加上巴基斯坦继续致力于根除脊髓灰质炎，世界上最后两个脊髓灰质炎流行的国家将有望追随其他国家的脚步，走上结束野生脊髓灰质炎病毒的道路。
“If other countries can be polio free, why can’t Pakistan be?” Shumaila asks.
“如果其他国家可以消除脊髓灰质炎病毒，为什么巴基斯坦不能”苏梅拉说道。
Want to be a polio hero? This World Polio Day you can support Shumaila and other polio workers by donating to Rotary’s fight against polio. Our foundation is giving a 2-to-1 match to every donation. Learn more: endpol.io/give
想成为抗击脊髓灰质炎的英雄吗？在这个世界脊髓灰质炎日，你可以通过向扶轮社（Rotary）抗击脊髓灰质炎项目捐赠来支持苏梅拉和其他脊髓灰质炎工作者。我们基金会将会对每笔捐款进行2比1配捐。点击 endpol.io/give，了解更多信息。
