World Polio Day - October 24, 2009

Weekly Elixir – Rotary Club of Parry Sound

…for the week of October 26, 2009

World Polio Day – October 24, 2009








Some information on Polio in the world …

Globally, cases of polio have been -

2008 total - 1651
Year to date (2008) - 1406
Year to date (2009) - 1198

In endemic countries, cases of polio have been -

2008 total - 1505
Year to date (2008) - 1317
Year to date (2009) - 930

In non-endemic countries, cases of polio have been -

2008 total - 146
Year to date (2008) - 89
Year to date (2009) - 268


Source: http://www.polioeradication.org/casecount.asp


This October, some 162 million children are being vaccinated against polio, in countries from Guinea in West Africa to Nepal in south Asia. This month also marks 95 years since the birth of Jonas Salk, developer of the first safe and effective polio vaccine. Polio survivors and eradication advocates across the globe commemorate 24 October as World Polio Day in his honour.

Polio has been reduced worldwide by 99 per cent since 1988, following the global push to eradicate the poliovirus spearheaded by national governments and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, using oral polio vaccine, developed by Albert Sabin. The virus now survives in parts of four countries where it is the subject of intense eradication activities.

As part of a US$ 355 million challenge grant awarded to Rotary by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Rotary clubs worldwide are aiming to raise a total of US$ 200 million by 2012. The funding will provide critical support to polio eradication activities, including the distribution of a new, more effective bivalent polio vaccine that was recently approved for use in the coming months.




On World Polio Day, Rotarians worldwide are concocting innovative fundraising ideas and activities to remind the world that help is still needed in the fight against polio.

Events include benefit screenings of the Oscar-nominated documentary “The Final Inch” and campaigns to make donations over the mobile phone. Rotarians are hawking a book of jokes, with profits going to End Polio Now. They are congregating in their town centres soliciting donations from passers-by. Many are participating in “We walk so they may walk”-type walking or running events, referring to the lifelong paralysis that polio can cause. In one Rotary Club, walkers are competing in costume to “Scare away polio.”

Rotary has more information on the www.rotary.org website, and you can also follow World Polio Day on Twitter and Facebook.

Source: http://www.polioeradication.org/content/general/LatestNews200910.asp#05