Biil Gates is on the current cover of Rotarian Magazine and rightfully so.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pledged to match 2:1 Rotary International’s commitment of $50 million dollars per year for the next three years totaling $450 million.
All of this money we’ve pledged is to kill an enemy we’ve been chasing for decades. One we’ve got cornered and in our sights. Polio.
The statistics of new polio cases is exciting to see. As of this week (September 20th), according to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), only 10 new cases of wild poliovirus (WPV) and 49 Vaccine-derived Poliovirus (cVDPV) cases have been reported globally this year. These WPV cases were in endemic countries while the cVDPV vases were in non-endemic countries.
Last year at this time we had 24 new WPV cases reported and 3cVDPV. The total for 2016 was 37 WPV and five cVDPV cases globally.
When you breakdown by country where these reports of new cases are occurring, Afghanistan (6) and Pakistan (4) for the WPV. Nine of the 49 Vaccine Derived Polio Virus cases were reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the rest were the Syrian Arab Republic.
This October 24th is World Polio Day. Leaders from across our land and Rotary Clubs around the world will pledge to eradicate this enemy through Polio Plus. Launched in 1985 by Rotary, this effort is overseen by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. – Along with Rotary, that includes the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Its mission: to immunize all the children of the world against polio.
Just like many of us last year said we never thought we’d live to see the day when the Cubs won the World Series, we are on the cusp of seeing the actual eradication Polio.
We really are ‘thisclose’….