World Polio Day is recognized each year on October 24. This day brings awareness to this disease by celebrating the significant progress towards its eradication, as well as the efforts to maintain a spotlight on the effects it can bring to children under the age of five.
While polio is one of the most feared diseases in the world, it is also a preventable disease through a safe and effective vaccine. Worldwide vaccination has brought a global decrease of 99.9% in cases since 1988 leaving only Afghanistan and Pakistan remaining as endemic areas on our globe.
The priority continues to educate people of each new generation regarding the effects of this disease on children under the age of five years old because this is an active disease in some parts of our world. The threat still remains because this disease can be imported from other countries with variants cropping up in under-vaccinated populations resulting in new outbreaks. This disease has the power to bring lifelong disability to the infected along with a small risk of paralysis.
Since polio has not been eradicated fully on our planet, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) reports a global resurgence of this disease over the next ten years could occur with as many as 200,000 new cases resulting each year. It is critical our attention remains focused on polio until global eradication has been achieved.
This can be achieved by maintaining high immunity against polio through vaccinating each new generation to ensure they are safe from the devastating effects. Rotary is committed to supporting stout polio surveillance to ensure polio is truly eradicated from every corner of the world.
To that end, the Rotary Club of Springfield, Illinois supports these ongoing efforts and encourages others to become involved in this goal to eliminate this paralyzing disease. Eradication can be achieved so this disease does not reemerge to put the lives of children somewhere on our planet at risk. To learn more about how you can contribute to ending polio, visit the website: endpolio.org
Letter to the Editor
John Webb, President-Elect
Rotary Club of Springfield, Illinois