“Peace doesn’t get built in congresses or parliaments. And it doesn’t get built by armies, or presidents, or even in the United Nations building in New York,” said John F. Germ, Past International President of Rotary. “It gets built by people who care, and are willing to work for the things they care about. Things like sustainable economic growth, human rights, clean water and air, sanitation, literacy, and health.” Promoting peace is one of Rotary’s six areas of focus that includes fighting disease, providing clean water, supporting education, saving mothers and children, and growing local economies. Rotary has contributed more than $3 billion to support projects and scholarships.

Vaccine-derived polioviruses are extremely rare and exist under specific circumstances. Oral polio vaccine contains live virus that is weakened so that it will prompt the body’s immune response without causing paralysis. The vaccine is ingested, and the weakened virus replicates in the child’s gut and is then excreted. In areas with poor sanitation, this excreted vaccine virus can spread to other children. This can actually be good because it then immunizes them. When the strain no longer finds susceptible children, it dies out .The problem occurs in areas of low vaccination coverage. There, such vaccine-derived strains of the virus can continue to circulate as long as they continue to find unvaccinated or otherwise susceptible children. While they continue to circulate, they mutate. Eventually, if they are allowed to circulate long enough — at least 12 months — they can mutate into strains that are strong enough to cause paralysis. Polio surveillance has two parts: Doctors and health workers monitor children for the virus, and authorities test sewage samples from sewer systems or elsewhere, in areas that don’t have adequate sanitation facilities. The detection of these most recent cases demonstrates that polio surveillance systems are functioning in both countries.