{"id":9185,"date":"2024-10-27T16:47:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-27T20:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/?p=9185"},"modified":"2024-10-27T17:09:35","modified_gmt":"2024-10-27T21:09:35","slug":"fighting-polio-one-pinkie-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/2024\/10\/27\/fighting-polio-one-pinkie-at-a-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighting Polio, One Pinkie At A Time"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.kb-image9185_c93db8-ff .kb-image-has-overlay:after{opacity:0.3;}<\/style>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-kadence-image kb-image9185_c93db8-ff size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2024\/10\/aa3ea8fb-0c4b-4ac9-ad3f-3c1526494b36-e1730062561429.jpeg\" class=\"kb-advanced-image-link\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"559\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2024\/10\/aa3ea8fb-0c4b-4ac9-ad3f-3c1526494b36-559x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"kb-img wp-image-9189\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>(Professor Jen Lynds and Professor Daniel Dobbs pose after having their pinkies&#8217; painted purple for charity.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color has-small-font-size wp-elements-27c8e4cdc05ebf08c56ac07d7ee80354\">by Professor Jen Lynds<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color has-small-font-size wp-elements-f6ec14d657d101d5cd9cd24d25343735\"><em>UTimes <\/em>Advisor<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color has-small-font-size wp-elements-23384887da9eba6e4fa8823b4e8e5e4b\">When most students think of a pandemic, the ravages of polio do not come to mind.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color has-small-font-size wp-elements-27ffeb59a09feef4ba5bde6d495c2152\">They were not alive when the devastating infectious disease caused epidemics in the United States, the effects of which are still visible today. According to the Mayo Clinic, there were approximately 16,000 polio cases in the United States before 1955. A significant cause of disability in children, polio is caused by a virus that spreads from person to person. It invades the brain and spinal cord, causing paralysis. The crippling disease is incurable and can be fatal, but the invention of a vaccine by Dr. Jonas Salk eradicated most cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color has-small-font-size wp-elements-cec7ac15b17e223602f6bcb515977e46\">At the same time, not everyone has access to the vaccine. Each year, the University of Maine at Presque Isle and the Presque Isle Rotary Club partner to change that.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color has-small-font-size wp-elements-0aded53b341f250e29fffff51bb12366\">On Thursday, October 24, members of the UMPI Student Nursing Organization led The Purple Pinkie Project on campus. The event was held in conjunction with World Polio Day. Donors painted their pinkies\u2019 purple to garner funding. Donations supported Rotary International\u2019s End Polio Now effort to bolster polio immunizations in countries where polio remains a threat. One dollar is the estimated cost to immunize each child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color has-small-font-size wp-elements-9f28b5fbd522a68e9dbe65051c7584d6\">While polio was eradicated from the U.S. in 1979, the disease is active in other countries. According to a 2024 article in Science magazine, wild poliovirus remains virulent in Afghanistan and Pakistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color has-small-font-size wp-elements-471f81a10471024bb388eed8cdb540df\">Professor Daniel Dobbs, who teaches political science at the University of Maine at Presque Isle, donated to the cause. He laughed as student nurses colored his pinkie with a purple Sharpie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color has-small-font-size wp-elements-998d52bc2ff7e4420edd79660ec92480\">He did not hesitate to donate to the fundraiser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color has-small-font-size wp-elements-6d24d6803fcbfb41fc77d092ab4a0e45\">\u201cIt is a great cause and something everyone should do,\u201d he said. \u201cI think people need to stand up and act when there is a just cause. Fighting and eliminating polio is just that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-link-color has-small-font-size wp-elements-0fe6f1c9f7745257d88f37027d5b980e\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Professor Jen Lynds and Professor Daniel Dobbs pose after having their pinkies&#8217; painted purple for charity.) by Professor Jen Lynds UTimes Advisor When most students think of a pandemic, the ravages of polio do not come to mind.&nbsp; They were not alive when the devastating infectious disease caused epidemics in the United States, the effects [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7376],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9185"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9197,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9185\/revisions\/9197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}