WORLD POLIO DAY 2016

World Polio Day was established over a decade ago by Rotary International in honor of the birth of Dr. Jonas Salk.  Dr. Salk led the first team to develop an effective vaccine against poliomyelitis.    In 2016, we continue to fight to eradicate polio across the globe.   According to GPEI, there have been 30 cases documented this year worldwide (through October 30).  Twenty-seven of these are wild poliovirus type 1 and three are circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus cases.  The following countries have reported cases in 2016 - Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Lao People's Democratic Republic.

 

Rotary International is a proud member of the GPEI (Global Polio Eradication Initiative).  Launched in 1988 after the World Health Assembly passed a resolution to eradicate polio, the GPEI, along with its partners, has helped countries to make huge progress in protecting the global population from this debilitating disease. As a result, global incidence of polio has decreased by 99% since GPEI’s foundation and an estimated 10 million people today are walking who would otherwise have been paralysed by the disease. Now the task remains to tackle polio in its last few strongholds and get rid of the final 1% of polio cases. Read more about how GPEI, Rotary International and others supporters continue to team up in the fight against this deadly disease.

 

 

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