World Polio Day is October 24

Rotary & Polio

Poliomyelitis, or polio, is a paralyzing and potentially fatal disease that still threatens children in some parts of the world. Poliovirus invades the nervous system and can cause total paralysis in hours. It can strike people of any age but mainly affects children under five. Polio can be prevented by vaccines, but it is not curable. Unlike most diseases, polio can be eradicated.

PolioPlus

For more than 30 years, Rotary and our partners have driven the effort to eradicate polio worldwide. Our PolioPlus program was the first initiative to tackle global polio eradication by vaccinating children on a massive scale. As a core partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, Rotary focuses on advocacy, fundraising, volunteer recruitment, and awareness-building.

Rotary members have contributed more than $2.2 billion and countless volunteer hours to protect nearly 3 billion children in 122 countries from this paralyzing disease. Rotary’s advocacy efforts have played a role in decisions by governments to contribute more than $10 billion to the effort.  Learn more at endpolio.org

One Day, One Focus, Ending Polio. 

World Polio Day is a time for Rotary members, public health advocates, and all who want a world free from polio to come together, recognize our progress in the fight to end polio, and talk about the actions we need to take in order to end polio for good.

Take Action

Consider a post to your contacts: “Goodbye Polio, Thanks Rotary” with a personal comment such as, “I’m proud to be part of Rotary, a worldwide organization that is working to eradicate the deadly and debilitating disease of polio from the world.”

If you aren’t already contributing to Polio Plus as a Rotarian, options will be presented at our Oct. 22 RGT meeting.  If you are contributing, email our RGT Polio Plus Campion Susan Nickerson with how you support our Rotary legacy project: [email protected]