World Polio Day 2016 highlights Rotary’s progress to end polio

Posted on Oct 14, 2016
 
 
Where are we in the fight to eradicate polio? What's left to do? And why does it cost so much? Rotary's World Polio Day event on 24 October will answer these questions and more.
 

Health officials from our partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative will join Rotary leaders and special guests at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, to give a status update on the eradication campaign.

The wild poliovirus has caused fewer new cases of the disease so far this year than this time last year, but recent setbacks in Nigeria — which was re-classified as polio-endemic in September 2016 — underscore the need for vigilance.

Yet the detection of new cases in northern Nigeria also demonstrates that surveillance efforts are reaching children even in areas affected by conflict. The challenge now is to contain the outbreak and boost immunity in affected areas until the virus is eradicated worldwide.

This year also saw the largest and fastest vaccine rollout in history, as 155 countries and territories switched from the trivalent oral polio vaccine to the . The bivalent oral polio vaccine protects against the only two strains still in circulation and reduces the likelihood of vaccine-derived cases.

  • Stream the 24 October event live at endpolio.org.
  • for a chance to be recognized in Atlanta.
  • Share the live-stream and educate your social networks about the campaign to #endpolio.
3-Oct-2016