Rotary and Polio

"Rotary was the first with the vision of a polio-free world"Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, Past Director General of the World Health Organization

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In 1985 Rotary International started a campaign to immunise the children of the world against polio.

In 1988 the World Health Organization (WHO), Rotary International, UNICEF, and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) forged the Global Polio Eradication Initiative to eradicate polio as a global imperative. The goal was to remove it permanently so that surveillance, screening, and control measures, such as vaccines, would no longer be needed.

Since then, the number of cases has dropped dramatically, but the disease still exists in a handful of countries. Although worldwide efforts to distribute a vaccine reduced polio by 99 percent, young people are still being infected

As at 2008, Rotary has contributed $700 million, a figure that will increase to more than $850 million once polio is eradicated. Yet, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative faces a global funding gap of $490 million for 2008-09, of which $135 million is needed urgently. The governments of the world, particularly the G8, must continue to make significant contributions.

Rotary support however is not limited to raising funds. Rotary members in non-endemic countries personally volunteer their time to support the immunisation programme in the endemic countries. They seek to ensure that the message gets to the people who are cut off from the mainstream by conflict, geography or poverty and that the children living in these communities are immunised.

Rotary members in endemic countries volunteer to help with the immunisation events by delivering vaccine via the cold chain,recruiting volunteers, transporting health workers and volunteers and administering the vaccine. They also organise and support meetings of religious and community leaders to ensure that the whole community is involved in the programme.