Polio has existed since prehistoric times; by the mid-20th century, the poliovirus could be found all over the world and killed or paralysed over half a million people every year (1). It’s stated that 350,000 children were paralyzed by polio every year before 1988 (2). But, thanks to global efforts – including that of Rotary – in massive vaccination programmes, only two countries remain endemic with wild polio in 2023.
The End Polio site (3) currently states that “the eradication of polio is one of our longest standing and most significant efforts. Along with our partners, we have helped immunize more than 2.5 billion children against polio in 122 countries. We have reduced polio cases by 99.9 percent worldwide and we won’t stop until we end the disease for good.”
As it’s done for the past few years, our club will be teaming up with the Rotary Club of Canterbury Sunrise and other Rotarians to light up St Dunstan’s Church in purple to raise awareness of this amazing work. We also hope to support Sunrise’s fundraising effort made in conjunction with The Monument in Canterbury to raise funds to support the eradication endeavour. (See details on their Facebook page here where you can find out how to take part).
We’d also like to remind you that you can still download our FREE recipe e-book here in case you wanted to be inspired by something purplish to mark the day – just click here for details. If you can, we’d appreciate a donation.
Our regular readers may recall that some of our members recently visited the Royal Courts of Justice in London. Unfortunately, four of those that had signed up couldn’t make it; they have kindly agreed that the money (£100) should be donated towards ending polio. That’s very good news and we’re grateful to them for their generosity.
Picture: World Polio Day. Picture credit: endpolio.org
(1) History of the Polio Vaccine
(3) End Polio
