What is Polio?
Polio is a paralyzing and potentially deadly infectious disease that most commonly affects children under the age of 5. The virus typically spreads through contaminated water and can then attack the nervous system.
How can we CRUSH it?
Rotary has been working to eradicate polio for more than 35 years. Our goal of ridding the world of this disease is closer than ever. As a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, we’ve reduced polio cases by 99.9 percent since our first project to vaccinate children in the Philippines in 1979.
Today, wild polio remains endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But it’s crucial to continue working to keep other countries polio-free. If all eradication efforts stopped today, within 10 years, polio could paralyze as many as 200,000 children a year.
The “Plus” in PolioPlus
Rotary’s PolioPlus program is more than just polio vaccinations. The “plus” is something else that is provided as a part of the polio eradication campaign. It might be a hand-operated tricycle for a polio survivor, or solar-powered boreholes to provide clean water. It might be additional medical treatments, mosquito nets, or soap. A 2010 study estimates that vitamin A drops given to children at the same time as the polio vaccine have prevented 1.25 million deaths by decreasing susceptibility to infectious diseases.
