What is that Polio Picture? This picture shows Dr Leone Farrell, PhD. Dr Farrell, was one one of the many female scientists who received less than appropriate recognition for their contributions to science. Dr Farrell was a key figure in the successful mass production of the polio vaccine, enabling Jonas Salk and his team to create enough serum to perform the initial polio vaccine trials in 1954. © Sanofi Pasteur Canada Archives
Vaccines have prevented about 10 million deaths from disease since 1963, researchers estimate. Rotary members know the power of vaccination well: The oral polio vaccine has helped bring cases of wild polio down 99.9 percent since 1988, with the virus remaining endemic in only two countries today. And now, as COVID-19 vaccines are being distributed around the world, the experience and knowledge that Rotary and its partners in the Global
Polio Eradication Initiative have gained are helping protect communities from the pandemic.
Almost Three Billion Children have now received the Oral Polio Vaccine as a result of the Rotary inspired PolioPlus Campaign!
A Win Against Polio is a Win for Global Health!
How Many Children have we saved from the paralysis of Polio?
That number has now reached 20 Million! That’s a number to celebrate and to share!
2021 Circulating Vaccine Derived Polio Cases – 73 – Afghanistan – 33 (308 in 2020), Angola – 0 (3 in 2020),Benin – 0 (3 in 2020), Burkina Faso – 0 (61 in 2020), Cameroon – 0 (7 in 2020), CAR – 0 (4 in 2020), Chad – 0 (99 in 2020), Congo – 1 (2 in 2020), Cote d’ Ivoire – 0 (72 in 2020), DRC – 2 (81 in 2020), Ethiopia – 0 (26 in 2020), Ghana – 0 (11 in 2020), Guinea – 5 (44 in 2020), Liberia – 1 (0 in 2020),Madagascar – 1 (2 in 2020), Mali – 0 (46 in 2020),Malaysia – 0 (1 in 2020), Niger – 0 (8 in 2020), Nigeria – 5 (8 in 2020), Pakistan – 6 (135 in 2020), Philippines – 0 (1 in 2020), Senegal – 3 (0 in 2020) ,Sierra Leone – 4 (10 in 2020), Somalia – 0 (13 in 2020), South Sudan – 0 (55 in 2020), Sudan – 0 (58 in 2020), Tajikistan – 6 (1 in 2020), Togo – 0 (9 in 2020), and Yemen – 0 (33 in 2020).
A total of 1,084 Vaccine Derived Polio cases were reported in 26 countries in 2020.
Quote of the Day
“To leave the world a little better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition, to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived – this is to have succeeded.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Final Two Polio Endemic Countries:
Pakistan
0 new Polio cases reported this week.
1 Wild Polio cases – 2021. The most recent case had an onset of paralysis on 1/27/21.
84 Wild Polio cases – 2020. Four WPV1 & CVDPV2 Positive Environmental Samples were reported this week in Pakistan.
Afghanistan
0 new Polio cases reported this past week.
1 Wild Polio case – 2021. The most recent cases had an onset of paralysis on 1/1/21.
56 Wild Polio cases – 2020. No WPV1 & CVDPV2-Positive Environmental Samples were reported this week in Afghanistan.
Our Goal is Global Polio Eradication!!
Terry Ziegler, Endowment/Major Gifts Adviser Rotary Region 36
