ROTARIANS COMBAT POLIO MILLIONS VACCINATED IN INDIA.

Byline: Krystn Shrieve Staff Writer

SIMI VALLEY - Along with three dozen other members of local Rotary Clubs, Anil Garg recently returned to his native India to inoculate millions of children against the polio virus.

``It was an opportunity of a lifetime to go back to the country where I started to help out,'' said Garg, of Simi Valley. ``We saw some children who were crawling because of the polio. It was so sad.''

Rotary International has spent $315 million worldwide to combat polio. During the most recent trip, 36 members of Rotary District 5240 - which includes Simi Valley and the Conejo Valley - joined in a two-day effort to distribute the oral vaccine across India.

On the first day, 131 million children were given the vaccine. The next day, teams went door to door and administered the vaccine to 10 million more. Organizers said nearly all the youngsters in India have now been vaccinated.

``Teams of Rotarians, other volunteers and government workers went from door to door, slum to slum and hovel to hovel searching for the last unimmunized child,'' said Otto Austel, a Simi Valley doctor and governor of Rotary District 5240.

Garg led two groups of Rotary members that administered the oral vaccine in Lucknow. At one hospital, he administered the vaccine to a day-old baby.

``The campaign to eradicate polio started worldwide in 1985,'' said Garg, who moved to the United States in 1970. ``But there were still large pockets across the world - and India was one of them - where polio was still a problem. The campaign to eradicate it in India started back in 1994.''

Joan Headley, executive director of the International Polio Network, which helps those who contracted the polio virus before the vaccine was in use, said the most recent statistics show that in 1998, 6,227 cases of polio were reported throughout the world. Because cases are not always reported, however, Headley said the number of cases could be as high as 37,362.

Headley said the polio vaccine has been in use since the mid-1950s, but that the virus is still circulating in 50 countries including several major ones such as Bangladesh, the Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, India, Nepal, Nigeria and Pakistan. The last known case in the United States was in Pennsylvania in 1979.

Austel explained that polio is spread in a hand-to-mouth fashion. The virus enters a person's body through the mouth, goes through the intestinal system and attacks and paralyzes the nerves.

``In countries where the sanitation is poor and the population is crowded the polio is more successful in spreading,'' Austel said.

Garg said government officials in India broadcast announcements and songs - sung in both English and Hindi - to encourage parents to bring their children in for vaccination.

``But people were happy to have the vaccine,'' Garg said. ``They're very grateful because they have seen the devastation polio causes.''

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo: (1 -- color) Braces and crutches can't prevent two young polio victims in India from sharing a hug.

(2 -- color) Anil Garg - Simi Valley Rotarian, pictured at left.

(3) Otto Austel, a Simi doctor and governor of Rotary District 5240, said volunteers went from door to door, hovel to hovel.