What is that Polio Picture? Rotary International President Jennifer Jones announces Rotary’s $150 million pledge toward polio eradication efforts at the 2022 Global Citizen Festival in New York City on Sept 24.

The additional funding Jones announced will go to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, which said in August that it was seeking new, increased funding commitments for its 2022-26 polio eradication strategy. “We want this to be the start of a massive effort to reach the initiative’s US$4.8 billion funding goal,” Jones said.

“Quite honestly, until everyone is protected, no one is protected,” Jones told The Associated Press in an interview. “And we see now with the state of emergency being declared in New York and the case of vaccine-derived polio that has entered here, it’s close to home. I think it’s a little bit of an alarm bell to a lot of people who thought, ‘Well, this is something that’s gone. Why do we even need to immunize our children?’”

Jones said she wanted to announce Rotary International’s new commitment at Global Citizen Festival’s 10th anniversary because the organization made a similar announcement at the first festival.

“They have millions and millions of Global Citizens and we have 1.4 million citizens who are people of action, who are doing things every single day in the field,” Jones said. “So the ability for us to take our activated populations and showcase that we want to help and help people understand what they can do to make a difference, it’s just a great synergy between our two organizations.”

As has been the case with COVID vaccines, and so many others, the primary problem isn’t the technology at all—but how humans have deployed it, or failed to. “Vaccine sitting in a vial, no matter how genetically stable and how effective it is, that’s not going to solve the problem of the outbreaks. It’s really vaccination and getting to that last child in that last community.” Ananda Bandyopadhyay, the deputy director for the polio team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

 A Win Against Polio is a Win for Global Health!

2022 Circulating Vaccine Derived Polio Case Total – 437 Afghanistan – 43, Algeria – 1, Benin – 6 (3 in 2021), Central African Republic – 3, Chad – 18 (0 in 2021), DR Congo – 143 (28 in 2021), Eritrea – 1, Ghana – 2, Israel – 1, Madagascar – 8 (13 in 2021), Malawi – 2, Mozambique – 8 (2 in 2021), Niger – 10 (18 in 2021), Nigeria – 33 (415 in 2021), Pakistan – 8, Somalia – 4 (1 in 2021), Togo – 0, United States – 1, Yemen – 145 (69 in 2021).

New Polio Cases & Samples This Week – Afghanistan – 1 WPV1 Sample,  CAR – 3 cVDPV2 Cases + 2 Samples, D R Congo – 6  cVDPV1 Cases + 13 cVDPV2 Cases, Ghana – 2 cVDPV2 Samples,  Mozambique – 3 cVDPV1 Cases + 1 WPV1 Case, Pakistan – 1 WPV1 Case + 2 Samples, Somalia – 1 cVDPV2 Case, Yemen – 6 cVDPV2 Cases.

2021 Circulating Vaccine Derived Polio Cases -689 in 22 Countries.  

2020 Circulating Vaccine Derived Polio Cases – 1,113 in 26 countries in 2020.

Quote of the Day

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.“

— T. S. Eliot

The Final Two Polio Endemic Countries:

as of 10/8/2022

0 new Polio cases reported this week.
2 Wild Polio case – 2022, (4 Wild Polio cases, 2021). The most recent cases had an onset of paralysis on 9/10/22.
56 Wild Polio cases – 2020.
1 WPV1 and 0 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