Ocean Grove Rotary is moving forward in its bid to raise awareness, funds, and support to end polio.
World Polio Day, on 24 October, is dedicated to eradicating polio, a vaccine-preventable disease that still threatens children in parts of the world today.
Rotarians have long worked to end the paralysing virus, which will be only the second human disease ever to be eradicated.
Rotary Club of Ocean Grove is marking the occasion at its meeting on Tuesday 21 October by wearing red and fundraising.
“Ocean Grove Rotary has supported the eradication of polio by contributing to the End Polio Now campaign,” president Lyndy Stagg said.
“Many of us know people who live with polio today and know of their challenges.”
The polio virus still exists endemically in Afghanistan and Pakistan. While the world has made significant progress in eradicating polio since the launch of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) in 1988, ongoing transmission in these last remaining countries poses a risk for global resurgence.
Rotary has contributed more than $4.4 billion to fight polio and countless volunteer hours since launching its PolioPlus program in 1985. In 1988, Rotary joined in partnership with the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to form the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
The Gates Foundation and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, later joined. When the initiative was launched, there were 350,000 cases of polio every year. Today, the incidence of polio has plummeted by more than 99.9 percent.
Visit rotary.org and endpolio.org for more about Rotary and its efforts to eradicate polio.
