WORLD POLIO DAY

The goal of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative is to complete the eradication and containment of all wild, vaccine-related and Sabin polioviruses, such that no child ever again suffers paralytic poliomyelitis.

Launched in 1988 after the World Health Assembly passed a resolution to eradicate polio, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, along with its partners, has helped countries to make huge progress in protecting the global population from this debilitating disease. As a result, global incidence of polio has decreased by 99.9% since GPEI’s foundation. An estimated 16 million people today are walking who would otherwise have been paralysed by the disease, and more than 1.5 million people are alive, whose lives would otherwise have been lost. Now the task remains to tackle polio in its last few strongholds and get rid of the final 0.1% of polio cases.

As World Polio Day approaches, we need your help to amplify our message about eradicating polio to protect the world’s children from a devastating disease.

We have made tremendous progress since the Global Polio Eradication Initiative was launched:

• A 99.9% reduction in cases of illness caused by wild poliovirus
• 3 billion children immunized
• 125 countries where polio was endemic reduced to two — Afghanistan and Pakistan — with the virus contained in just a few districts and provinces

But even just one case still represents one child’s life forever changed by polio. That’s why Rotary members must remain tenacious and keep our promise: We won’t stop until we know that no child will ever again experience the paralyzing effects of polio.

Let’s use World Polio Day to advocate for the support we need to make history by eradicating polio. Together, we end polio!