Brief Overview | Polio Facts and Figures | History of Polio | The Progress of Polio Eradication | The Challenges

Brief Overview

In 1985, Rotary promised every child a world free from the threat of polio. Since then, the number of countries that continue to be polio endemic has declined from over 125 to just four.

It hasn't been easy. Rotary and its partners will have invested over $1.2 billion in the effort.  And that doesn't include the money spent by individual Rotarians in travel and the value of time spent to inoculate children in those nations.

But all that money and all the time will be wasted if we don't complete the task of eradicating polio in the four remaining nations -- Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Nigeria now.

Since 2003, polio virus outbreaks have spread to 27 previously polio-free countries. Thankfully, most outbreaks have been stopped.  But the fact remains, so long as polio virus exists any place in the world, it is a threat to every nation in the world. In a global economy, polio is only a plane ride away.

The eradication of polio remains urgent! As Bill Gates said, in announcing the Gates Foundation's newest challenge grant, "[Rotary has] to keep all these immunizations going as long as there’s any of the disease spreading within a region. We’re pretty close to the end on polio. Time makes so much difference."

Remember what polio does:
It cripples, maims and kills.

[Read more about the Gates Foundation Here]