Dear Editor:
As we honor two incredible milestones toward reaching a polio-free world this year, we must note that neither would have been possible without vaccines.
Thanks to their safety and efficacy, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) southeast Asia region, which includes India, is celebrating a decade free of wild polio, and its region of the Americas, which includes the United States, is celebrating 30 years of the same.
Both achievements result from large-scale immunization campaigns spearheaded by Rotary International service clubs and its Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) partners. Thanks to their continued efforts, wild polio only circulates in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and polio cases have been reduced by 99.9% worldwide over the past 35-plus years.
Despite this progress, polio anywhere remains a threat everywhere.
As a Rotary member of the Fergus-Elora, I urge readers to join us in our mission to end polio for good. Your support is crucial in ensuring that this paralyzing disease does not return to polio-free countries, thereby protecting children everywhere.
On World Polio Day, Oct. 24, Rotary calls for your continued public support.
Your contributions can help fund the end of polio, and your efforts to share factual information can encourage vaccine acceptance and uptake, preventing polio outbreaks in the future.
Visit endpolio.org to learn more about how you can get involved.
Robert Galloway,
Past president of the Fergus-Elora Rotary Club