Monday, Oct. 24 was World Polio Day, addressing a disease whose eradication has long been a central mission for Rotary. Paula Fleming shared some key information about World Polio Day, a disabling and life-threatening disease caused by poliovirus. The virus spreads from person to person and can invade an infected person's spinal cord, causing paralysis. There is no cure, but there are safe and effective vaccines to prevent polio.
Those vaccines cost 14 cents each, most of the money going to frontline workers, most of whom are women, who are paid $4-5 per day...
Rotary works together with World Health Organization, UNICEF, the Gates Foundation, and Centers for Disease Control. And that work is ongoing, as the disease has made an alarming reappearance with two positive cases in Ukraine in 2021 with positive environmental studies this year. The United Kingdom also saw a positive environmental study at a sewage treatment plant, and there were positive environmental studies in New York, where an unvaccinated 29-year-old man has also suffered paralysis from the disease.
Rotary Foundation requests that every club donate $1,500 to Polio Plus each year. The goal is to raise $50 million in two years, with the Gates Foundation matching 2:1, totaling $100 million given to Polio Plus. Together, we end polio!