Friday October 24th is international Polio Day. It may not mean much to most Americans, since Polio has been gone here in the states for over fifty years. Other parts of the world haven’t been as lucky. In 1985 there were 120 countries with over 300,000 new cases of Polio every year. Last year there were a few hundred cases in a handful of countries. All the cases came from Nigeria, Afghanistan, or Pakistan.
The eradication of Polio has been a project of Rotary International since the mid 1980s. Over the next two decades the number of cases of Polio dropped by 99%. The last few Polio cases have proven to be difficult to contain and eradicate. The collaboration of many has brought Polio to the edge of extinction with one of the biggest contributors being the Gates Foundation.
Next week I’ll return to Africa to do Polio immunizations in Ethiopia. I’ve seen the results in this country and hope all of Africa will be Polio free next year.
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