Celebrate World Polio Day

 

 

In 1985, with the launch of its flagship PolioPlus program, Rotary became the visionary organization to take on the ambitious goal to end polio worldwide. At that time, polio crippled more than 350,000 children a year in 125 countries.

 

Over the next 30 years, we have mobilized other partners, governments, and communities to immunize the world’s children against polio. We’ve kept our promise to work toward eradicating this disease, and the leadership, commitment, and generosity of Rotary members has brought the world 99.9 percent of the way there.

 

Today, only Pakistan and Afghanistan remain polio-endemic, and in 2014, there were fewer than 360 polio cases in the world. Nigeria has gone more than one year without a case, and at the end of September, the World Health Organization removed the country from the endemic list. 

 

 

With every inch we gain against polio, we must redouble our efforts to protect that progress, and to eliminate polio from its final hideouts in some of the hardest-to- reach parts of the world.

 

Why? No child should be crippled or die from a disease that is completely preventable. And the lessons we’ve learned from fighting polio — and the health infrastructure created to do so — pave the way for other lifesaving health interventions.

 

This is a true legacy Rotary can be proud to leave for future generations.