The goal of Rotary’s PolioPlus program which began officially in 1985 is the global certification of polio eradication. By eradication, WOH, the Global Commission on Certification and Rotary mean the interruption of the transmission of the wild poliovirus.
Rotary is working through the Global Polio Eradication Initiative to ensure that no child will ever again know the crippling effects of polio.
By the time the world is certified polio-free, Rotary’s contributions will exceed US$1.2 billion to a program that is expected to total approximately US$10 billion in donor funds enabling the largest public health initiative the world has ever known.
More than one million Rotarians worldwide have contributed toward the success of the polio eradication effort to date.
Globally, the number of polio cases has fallen from 350,000 annually in the mid-1980s to about 205 cases as of August, 2011 in the remaining four polio-endemic: Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan.
As long as polio threatens even one child anywhere in the world, children everywhere remain at risk. The stakes are that high.
Rotary International Polio News.
This Close from Rotary International on Vimeo.