WORLD POLIO DAY
24 OCTOBER 2022
One Day – One Focus: End Polio
What is Polio?
Polio, or poliomyelitis, is a paralysing and potentially deadly infection disease that attacks the nervous system and most commonly affects children under the age of 5. The first major documented polio outbreak occurred in Vermont in the United States in 1894, with 18 deaths and 132 cases of permanent paralysis reported. In 1955 Dr Jonas Salk developed a vaccine that was declared ‘safe and effective’ and then in 1960, the US government licensed the oral polio vaccine developed by Dr Albert Sabin.
At the end of the 1980s, more than 350,000 children were paralysed by polio every year. Through the work of Rotary and its partners, the incidence of polio has now been reduced by 99.9% since its first project to vaccinate children in the Philippines in 1979. Today polio remain endemic in only two countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Key milestones in Rotary’s fight against Polio since 1979
1985 – Rotary Launches PolioPlus, with an initial fundraising target of US $120million
1988 – Rotary International and the World Health Organization launch the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
1994 – The International Commission for the Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication announces that polio has been eliminated from the Americas.
1995 – Health workers and volunteers immunize 165 million children in China and India in 1 week. Rotary launches the PolioPlus Partners program.
2000 – A record 550 million children (almost 10% of the world’s population) receive the oral polio vaccine. The Western Pacific region, spanning from Australia to China, is declared polio-free.
2003 – The Rotary Foundation raises $119 million in a 12-month campaign, with Rotary’s total contribution to polio eradication exceeding $500 million. Only six countries remain polio-endemic.
2004 – Synchronized National Immunization Days target 80 million children in Africa.
2006 – The number of polio-endemic countries drops to 4.
2009 – Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pledges $355 million and issues Rotary a challenge grant of $200 million – resulting in $555 million in support of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
2011 – Rotary’s funding for polio eradication exceeds $1 billion.
2014 – The World Health Organization certifies the South-East Asia region polio-free.
2020 – The World Health Organization certifies the African region wild polio-free.
As cited by Murray Verso, End Polio Now Coordinator, in the October 2022 edition of Rotary on the Move, it is timely to consider why Rotary and its partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) are trying so hard to eradicate this disease worldwide. So, why is this so important? Here are the five reasons why:
- To Improve Lives – Today, 1.9 million people who would otherwise be paralysed by polio are walking and 1.5 million people who would otherwise have died are alive.
- To Invest in the Future – If all eradication efforts stopped today, within 10 years polio could paralyse as many as 200,000 children each year. A polio-free world will be a healthier world for children everywhere.
- To Improve Child Health – Polio surveillance networks and vaccination campaigns also monitor children for other health problems like vitamin deficiency and measles, so they can be addressed sooner.
- To Save Money – The global effort to eradicate polio has already saved more than $27 billion in health care costs since 1988 and expects to save $14 billion more by 2050.
- To Make History – Polio eradication would be one of history’s greatest public health achievements, with polio following smallpox to become only the second human disease eliminated from the world.
However, there is still work to do. Until we see the last of the poliovirus, eradication efforts need additional funding to:
- IMMUNIZE more than 400 million children against polio every year.
- IMPROVE disease surveillance systems to detect any poliovirus in a person or the environment.
- HIRE more than 150,000 health workers to go door to door to find every child.
Diane Wilkinson
Chair, International & Foundation Committee
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