The Promise of a Polio-Free World

Rachel is a Senior Program Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and we're fortunate to have her with us to present a program.  Our virtual meeting component allows us to have speakers we would have never been able to hear from before.

Wild polio cases have plummeted from 350,000 a year in 1988 to just 6 in 2021. But these final cases are the most challenging in some of the most challenging places on earth. And we are also facing outbreaks of a variant poliovirus (cVDPV2) in several countries in Africa. These challenges emphasize why it’s critical to capitalize on the historic opportunity to end polio to ensure no child will ever again be paralyzed by this preventable disease.

The Gates Foundation and Rotary’s partnership is critical in the final push to end polio, but together with the other partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative we will eradicate polio.

Chair of the Day Jerry Pelofske