Social Services Beating Polio

uring the 1940s and 1950s, polio caused panic in the United States and Western Europe. The virus chose the weakest victims, mostly children under three, and afflicted thousands each year. It could start with something as simple as a headache, a stiff neck or a fever. But within a month, the virus began its terrible work, destroying the nerve cells that activate muscles, leaving them useless and the body paralyzed.

By the late 1950s, a vaccine quickly ended the polio threat in the industrialized world. But it lived on in poor countries. As recently as 1988, the virus still plagued 125 of them, afflicting more than 350,000 people a year. Thanks to Denise Johnson and her colleagues at the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, a lot has changed since then.

In the last 15 years, Johnson, deputy branch chief for the initiative at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, has helped lead the effort to eliminate polio from the world. Thanks to Johnson and her colleagues at the United Nations Children's Fund, the World Health Organization, and the community service organization Rotary International, the virus now is confined to seven countries. In 2002, fewer than 2,000 cases were reported worldwide. If all goes according to plan, polio will be eliminated within the next two years. As a result, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative is widely considered the gold standard of disease eradication programs.

Johnson, according to her colleagues, is the glue that holds the operation together. Many days, she is at her office in Atlanta at sunrise taking calls from WHO, UNICEF and CDC employees abroad. She makes sure these front-line workers have sufficient funds, enough polio vaccine, and good relations with the national governments with which they work.

"I think everyone, both overseas staff, as well as staff in Atlanta, feels they can call on Denise any time of day or night, and have her devote 110 percent of her effort on their problem," says Virginia Swezy, an activity director for CDC's polio eradication team in Atlanta.

In the last year, Johnson, 47, has traveled to India, where she stayed for a month helping the eradication team there organize and carry out a national immunization day. She also has made trips to Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, and later this year, she plans to visit Nigeria.

Johnson, says CDC branch chief Hamid Jafari, is the "one in the room who, despite her seniority, will always volunteer for the most difficult tasks." As Johnson herself says, "I do whatever we need."

That's been Johnson's way during a 25-year career at CDC, which started for the Michigan native after college at Central Michigan University and has spanned assignments in Cincinnati; Kansas City, Mo.; Baltimore; Harrisburg, Pa.; New York; and, most recently, Atlanta.

During her career, Johnson has worked to prevent sexually transmitted diseases and to clean up toxic waste dumps. Before joining the polio eradication team, she oversaw a program aimed at preventing domestic and sexual violence.

She says CDC has offered her "a great variety of important work that keeps your mind engaged. If you get tired of doing something, there is always something else that's interesting and needs to be done." But characteristically, when told about her Service to America medal, Johnson demurred. "I'm sitting here in my air-conditioned office. In India right now, there are people on the ground tromping through villages, going house to house, looking for kids to give them the vaccine. Those are the real heroes."