This Tuesday, October 24 is World Polio Day. Be sure to get ready for the 5th annual World Polio Day event, co-hosted with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and streamed live from Gates Foundation headquarters in Seattle, Washington at 5:30 pm by going to www.endpolio.org.
World Polio Day was established by Rotary International over a decade ago to commemorate the birth of Jonas Salk, who led the first team to develop a vaccine against poliomyelitis. Use of this inactivated poliovirus vaccine and subsequent widespread use of the oral poliovirus, developed by Albert Sabin, led to the establishment of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) in 1988. As of 2013, GPEI had reduced polio worldwide by 99%.
Polio is a crippling and potentially fatal infectious disease. There is no cure, but there are safe and effective vaccines. Polio can be prevented through immunization. Polio vaccine, given multiple times, almost always protects a child for life. The strategy to eradicate polio is therefore based on preventing infection by immunizing every child until transmission stops and the world is polio-free.
If you would like to support the drive to eliminate polio, you can donate directly at https://www.endpolio.org/donate
