On October 24th, 1.2 million Rotarians, and many others around the world celebrated World Polio Day. On this date, we acknowledged, with gratitude, the amazing strides that have been made in the drive to eradicate polio in our lifetime. We also aimed to bring awareness to the fact that our work is not finished until we reach zero, and until we keep it that way for 3 years, so we can declare the world free of polio.
We may not think about polio in the U.S., since our country was declared polio-free in 1979. But it’s a highly infectious disease, with no known cure, that mainly affects children under the age of 5, causing neurological damage that often leads to paralysis.
The vaccine for polio is highly effective, but getting children all over the world vaccinated against polio has been a monumental task — Rotary and it’s partners have reduced cases of polio by 99.9% since 1988, and now, complete eradication is within reach, but the fight is not over yet.
Three polio-endemic countries remain: Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. We must continue to work to eradicate polio in those three countries while simultaneously keeping polio at bay in 60 high-risk countries, where Rotarians and volunteers continue to operate immunization campaigns to protect children against polio. It would be so much easier to wipe out polio now, than to have to keep tracking down children to vaccinate. As noted on the End Polio Web site: “Until we end polio forever, every child is at risk.”
To find out more about the continuing fight to eradicate polio, go to https://www.endpolio.org/