Polio Eradication

Polio has been around for thousands of years. Roman emperor Claudius may have had it. Author Sir Walter Scott had it. Golfer Jack Nicklaus and filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola had it. Polio is an intestinal virus that enters the environment through feces. It's spreads through person-to-person contact, especially in situation of poor hygiene and enters the body orally. There are three variations of polio and type 2 has been eradicated since 1999. They infect humans, mainly children. In less then 1 in 100 polio cases, a paralytic form of the disease occurs which destroys motor neurons, the nerve cells that control the muscles. In 1954, Francis and Jonas Salk developed the Polio vaccine and more than1.8 million school children participated in a trial of the vaccine. By April 1955, after successful results, the vaccine was produced and by 1957, ten million children in five countries around the world were vaccinated. Polio eradication has been Rotary's top priority since 1985, and since then Rotary clubs have raised nearly $800 million for the effort. In 1994, the Americas were certified as polio-free, the Western Pacific region and Europe in 2002. Although the initiative has slashed the number of polio cases by 99 percent, the wild poliovirus still persists in four countries: Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan, and imported cases from those nations threaten to reinfect countries where the virus has been stopped. The initiative currently faces a critical funding shortfall that must be closed if eradication is to be achieved. To meet the funding challenges, Rotary International and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are making a combined contribution of $555 million in new funds for polio eradication. The Gates Foundation is awarding Rotary a $355 million challenge grant, which Rotary is matching with $200 million to be raised by its members and supporters. Rotary invites the general public to participate by visiting www.rotary.org/endpolio to learn about polio eradication and contribute to the challenge match.