In 1988 1000 people per day contracted polio around the world and in 2017 this has been reduced to below 20.  

This means that an aditional 360,000 people every year,  mainly children became crippled by the polio disease.  

Surely this is a massive achievement in world health, with such a vast number of people being saved from the suffering resulting from this disease.  

Rotary has been part of the campaign since 1988,  and has contributed $1.5 billion to the cause.  The numbers of children requiring immunisation to achieve this reduction is massive, hence the high cost.  

There are now 3 countries where small numbers are still being reported with polio - i.e Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.  Bearing in mind the mobilty of people in the modern world,  the disease can easily be brought to the UK and other countries,  so the aim is to perminantly eliminated the disease so that no one is threatened by the disease in the future.

To donate to the campaign please click here

To read more on this read 

Bulletin of the World Health Organization

Global eradication of polio: the case for “finishing the job”