24th October
30th Anniversary of the founding of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
World Polio Day was established by Rotary International over a decade ago to
commemorate the birth of Jonas Salk, who led the first team to develop a
vaccine against poliomyelitis. Use of this inactivated poliovirus vaccine and
subsequent widespread use of the oral poliovirus, developed by Albert Sabin,
led to the establishment of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) in
1988. As of 2013, GPEI had reduced polio worldwide by 99%.
commemorate the birth of Jonas Salk, who led the first team to develop a
vaccine against poliomyelitis. Use of this inactivated poliovirus vaccine and
subsequent widespread use of the oral poliovirus, developed by Albert Sabin,
led to the establishment of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) in
1988. As of 2013, GPEI had reduced polio worldwide by 99%.
For the last three decades, Rotary International and our members have
worked with the global health community and our partners in the Global Polio
Eradication Initiative (GPEI) to rid the world of polio. When the partnership
began in 1988, there were more than 350,000 cases of polio. By 2017, that
number had dropped to 22. The international community recognizes 24
October as World Polio Day. The day highlights the world’s progress toward
polio eradication and focuses attention on the final efforts to get there. To
honour the day, Rotary hosts a livestream event where top experts provide a
global status update on polio, international celebrities share personal stories
and inspire viewers to get involved in polio eradication, and GPEI leaders
discuss the impact of the partnership. Along with the livestream event, Rotary
clubs around the world host thousands of events to commemorate the day
and continue the fight to end polio.
Rotary will also stream the event in French, German, Italian, Japanese,
Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish.
This year’s event will be livestreamed from the College of Physicians of
Philadelphia, known as the birthplace of American medicine.
If you would like to be involved, see instructions in the bulletin.
How to watch the event live on your computer on the day of the event:
• In Google Chrome, go to KUDO and complete the form, then click
Submit.
• On the next page, click Floor and select your language from the list.
• You can watch a livestream of the proceedings from your computer or
smartphone starting at 18:30 Philadelphia time (UTC-4). A recording will
be available shortly after the event on endpolio.org.