Polio - the final push!

Rotary’s Polio Promise

More than 25 years ago, Rotarians made a promise to protect all children from polio.  We are committed to achieving our goal of a world that is certified polio free.

Our History

Polio has crippled and killed children for thousands of years. Today, we can effectively prevent the disease through vaccination. Worldwide, the number of infections has declined by more than 99 percent. But polio persists in three countries:  Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. More than US$9 billion has been invested in global polio eradication, but more is needed to reach children in these places and prevent it from returning to other countries. 

Visit endpolionow.org to find out how you can join us in fulfilling the promise of a polio-free world.

What Ending Polio Means to Me

• My children and grandchildren are healthy and safe.
• Thousands of kids who might have been paralyzed will be running and playing.
• I’m part of an effort to eradicate a disease that has killed and crippled children for thousands of years.
• A polio-free world could provide net benefits of at least $40-$50 billion if polio transmission is stopped within the next five years.

Resources here ...

Visit Rotary’s new polio website and help us make history

Click on the image to visit the new web site

Robert S. Scott (Chair, Rotary’s International PolioPlus Committee) invites us all to visit the new Polio Plus web site

He writes:

Greetings,

We are “this close” to making history by eradicating the crippling disease polio once and for all. We are at a true tipping point: case counts have never been lower, the number of countries affected has never been fewer—the time to beat polio is now. Only smallpox has ever been eradicated, and we will make history again by vanquishing polio.

But to achieve a polio-free world, Rotary and its partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative need your support to spread the word. Together, we must educate and activate individuals, organizations, and most importantly, governments, to keep up the fight to end polio now.

Click here to visit the new web site

Robust and coordinated digital outreach is necessary to reach our goal.  For that reason we created a virtual home—endpolionow.org-- where people can rally together to finish the fight to end polio. This website is available in English now, with other languages to follow.

Read more here ...

Why polio hasn't gone away yet.

Report from CNN - 30 July, 2012

Two little girls in matching gingham jumpers -- Pam is crouching and pulling on her sister Patricia's leg brace -- appeared in a poster for the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis in the early 1950s. They'd both recovered from polio.

"The story always went that she would loosen my braces, so we could play better, because my legs would be stiff ... I had it worse than she did," said Patricia O'Neil Dryer, now 65 years old and living in St. Cloud, Florida.

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