Rotary's Fight to Eradicate Polio
Saturday October 24 is World Polio Day. World Polio Day is celebrated to raise awareness about the eradication of Polio and also to thank thousands of healthcare workers who have contributed to removing Polio from this world.
Polio is a highly infectious virus spread from person to person, typically through contaminated water. In 1894 the first major polio outbreak occurred in Vermont USA, leaving 18 dead and 132 cases with permanent paralysis.
Rotary has been working to eradicate polio for more than 30 years. Our goal of ridding the world of this disease is closer than ever. As a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, we've reduced polio cases by 99.9 percent since our first project to vaccinate children in the Philippines in 1979.
We've helped immunize more than 2.5 billion children in 122 countries. So far, Rotary has contributed more than $1.8 billion toward eradicating the disease worldwide.
In 1994, by ensuring each and every child received immunization, polio was declared eliminated from the Americas. There has to be no new cases reported for 3 years in order for the WHO to declare a region polio free.
This year is cause for celebration as Africa has now become polio free, leaving only 2 countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan, still reporting cases.
If all eradication efforts stopped today, within 10 years, polio could paralyze as many as 200,000 children each year.
