Every year on 24 October, World Polio Day brings Rotary members, public health professionals, partners and communities around the world together around one shared objective: ending polio for good.
For Rotary, this day is much more than a date on the calendar. It is a reminder of a promise made to the world’s children: no child should have to suffer paralysis or death from a disease that can be prevented through vaccination.
More than 99% of the way there
When the Global Polio Eradication Initiative was launched in 1988, polio paralysed an estimated 350.000 people every year across more than 125 endemic countries. Since then, cases caused by wild poliovirus have fallen by more than 99%, and endemic transmission of wild poliovirus now remains in only Afghanistan and Pakistan.
This extraordinary progress demonstrates what sustained international cooperation can achieve. Rotary has been at the heart of this effort. Its first polio vaccination project began in the Philippines in 1979, and Rotary subsequently became a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988.
Since then, Rotary members have contributed more than US$2,9 billion through PolioPlus and countless volunteer hours, helping protect more than 3 billion children in 122 countries.
Yet the job is not finished.
Why polio still matters
Polio is a highly infectious viral disease that particularly affects children under five. There is no cure, but it can be prevented through vaccination. Approximately 1 in 200 infections results in irreversible paralysis, and among those paralysed, 5-10% die when the muscles required for breathing become immobilised.
As long as poliovirus continues to circulate anywhere, children everywhere remain potentially at risk. The virus can cross borders and spread among populations where vaccination coverage is insufficient. The latest WHO assessments therefore underline the importance of maintaining vaccination, surveillance and international cooperation until transmission has been stopped permanently.
Eradication means reaching the very last child.
Rotary’s promise: end polio now
For more than 4 decades, Rotary members have mobilised communities, raised funds, supported vaccination campaigns and advocated with governments and international institutions.
This is one of the most ambitious public-health initiatives ever undertaken. Its success would make polio only the second human disease in history, after smallpox, to be eradicated globally.
World Polio Day therefore represents both a celebration of how far we have come and a call to finish what we started.
How you can help
There are many ways to contribute. You can learn about polio and explain why eradication still matters. You can share reliable information through your personal and professional networks. You can support Rotary’s End Polio Now campaign and encourage others to do the same. And you can help keep polio on the public agenda by speaking about the extraordinary progress already achieved – and the work that remains.
Rotary also provides World Polio Day materials, social-media resources, videos and campaign tools that clubs and individuals can use to raise awareness in their communities.
Above all, World Polio Day reminds us that eradication is possible only if we maintain our commitment until the very end.
We made a promise to the children of the world. Together, we can keep it.
RC Plovdiv International joins Rotary clubs across the world in saying: End Polio Now.
Learn more about Rotary’s global effort and how you can contribute through Rotary International – ending polio and explore the World Polio Day resources.