David Truman and Lee Harman, District Foundation Committee PolioPlus Co-Chairs, presented an update on the PolioPlus program at our meeting on February 2, 2018. The PolioPlus Foundation Fund is one of the three Rotary Foundation funds, along with the Annual Fund and the Endowment Fund.
David started with a history of Polio from the 1900’s to 1960’s. At one time, 500,000 new polio cases were being reported worldwide per year. The U.S. epidemic of Polio was from 1948-1956 and began the era of the Iron Lung.
Rotary first became involved with Polio in 1979 with a successful pilot program in the Philippines. In 1985 Rotary committed $120,000,000 to the program with collaborating partners; Center for Disease Control (CDC), World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and 125 Nations worldwide. In 1984 there were 125 endemic nations with 350,000 cases per year.
One of the current concerns is the recent occurrence of 113 cases of Polio through December 31, 2017 with 22 cases of Wild Polio Virus (WPV) in Pakistan and Afghanistan and 91 cases of Circulating Vaccine Derived Paralytic Virus (CVDPV), a virus created from the wild virus that has concentrated in the environment where there is a low rate of vaccinations and poor sanitation. The CVDPV has shown up in the countries Congo and Syria where there’s been large civil conflict.
Total contributions to date in millions are: $3,105 Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, $2,904 USA, $1,625 Rotary, $1,482 United States, $1,321 India, $913 World Bank, $565 Canada, $546 Japan, $545 Germany, $480 Private Philanthropy, $300 Pakistan and $254 UNICEF with a total over $15 billion. The current Global Polio Eradication Initiative five year plan is to commit 5.5 Billion dollars to the cause. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is matching every dollar 2 for 1, up to 35 million per year per for five years. Please consider donating to the PolioPlus Fund.
For more information, go to Polio Global Eradication Initiative.