International World Polio Day

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October 2022 – The Foundations of Arvada Rotary and Arvada Sunrise Rotary have each set aside $1,000 to match donations from the Arvada community.  Funds will be forwarded to Rotary Foundation where they will be matched two for one by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.   DONATE TO END POLIO

Information from Center for Disease Control and Prevention Website

World Polio Day (October 24) provides an opportunity to highlight global efforts toward a polio-free world and honor the tireless contributions of those on the frontlines in the fight to eradicate polio from every corner of the globe.

Polio was once one of the most feared diseases in the U.S. In the early 1950s, before polio vaccines were available, polio outbreaks caused more than 15,000 cases of paralysis each year. Following introduction of vaccines—specifically, trivalent inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) in 1955 and trivalent oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) in 1963—the number of polio cases fell rapidly to less than 100 in the 1960s and fewer than 10 in the 1970s.

Thanks to the polio vaccine, dedicated health care professionals, and parents who vaccinate their children on schedule, wild poliovirus has been eliminated in this country for more than 30 years.

• Since 1979, no cases of polio caused by wild poliovirus have originated in the U.S.
• However, the wild virus has been brought into the country by travelers with polio. The last time this happened for wild poliovirus was in 1993. (In June 2022 a case of poliovirus was confirmed in Rockland County, NY; https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7133e2.htm.)

Rotary International Polio Plus Milestones

1979 - Rotary International begins its fight against polio with a multi-year project to immunize 6 million children in the Philippines.

1985 - Rotary International launches PolioPlus, the first and largest internationally coordinated private-sector support of a public health initiative, with an initial fundraising target of US$120 million.

1988 - There are an estimated 350,000 cases of polio in 125 countries. [Since 1988 there has been a 99.9% reduction in polio cases; only two countries remain endemic: Afghanistan and Pakistan.]

1994 - The International Commission for the Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication announces that polio has been eliminated from the Americas.

2009 - Rotary's overall contribution to the eradication effort nears $800 million. In January, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledges $355 million and issues Rotary a challenge grant of $200 million. This announcement will result in a combined $555 million in support of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.