World Polio Day is 24 October! The theme for this year’s World Polio Day is: “A win against polio is a win for global health.” The program offers details about Rotary and our partners’ efforts to fight polio, including the eradication of wild poliovirus in the African region, and shows how the investment in ending polio is critical for other global health initiatives, such as the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rotary International has been working to eradicate polio for more than 35 years. Our goal of ridding the world of this disease is closer than ever.
As a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, we've reduced polio cases by 99.9 percent since our first project to vaccinate children in the Philippines in 1979.
Rotary members have contributed more than $2.1 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.
Today, polio remains endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But it’s crucial to continue working to keep other countries polio-free. If all eradication efforts stopped today, within 10 years, polio could paralyze as many as 200,000 children each year.
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