Gerald Summerhays, Past Utah Rotary District Governor, reports that Rotary International is pleased to share that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through LDS Charities recently provided a $200,000 contribution to the Rotary Polio Plus Foundation for polio eradication efforts in 2015. These funds will be matched by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation two to one and will be used to reach children in even the most inaccessible areas of Africa with the polio vaccine.
These generous contributions come at an important time in the fight to eradicate polio, which would be only the second human disease to be eradicated (The first was small pox.). Case numbers of polio have never been lower. Only three countries (Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan) have never stopped transmission of the wild polio virus.
Summerhays reports that a great work is being done in partnership with Rotarians in several African countries and local LDS Church members. As they together advertise and promote the polio campaigns, more parents become aware of the need for immunizations and the campaign that is taking place, and more children are able to receive the vaccine.
However, a funding gap means immunization campaigns are being cut in high-risk countries, leaving children more vulnerable to polio. If polio isn’t stopped now, the disease could stage a comeback, affecting an estimated 200,000 children every year. As we have sadly learned by the recent Ebola outbreak, polio could be only a plane ride away.
Utah Rotarians joined with Rotarians worldwide when it made polio eradication its top priority in 1985. Since then Rotary has contributed US$1.2 billion, and its members have logged countless volunteer hours to help immunize more than two billion children in 122 countries.
Overall, remarkable progress has been achieved in the fight against polio. Since 1988, the number of polio cases has been reduced from 350,000 a year to fewer than 700 cases in 2011. The Americas were declared free from polio in 1994, the Western Pacific region in 2000, and Europe in 2002. But the fight is not over yet!
A highly infectious disease, polio still strikes children mainly under the age of five in parts of Africa and South Asia. Polio can cause paralysis and sometimes death. There is no cure for polio, but for as little as 60 cents worth of oral vaccine, a child can be protected from the disease for life.
For further information, visit www.endpolionow.org and www.utahrotaryendpolionow.org
