Rotary’s role in eradicating polio
It started innocently enough. There was a huge outbreak of polio in The Philippines and Rotarians undertook in 1979 to stop that epidemic by vaccinating 6,000,000 Filipino children. There was a naïve belief that the raging worldwide epidemic that was crippling some 350,000 people a year, most of them children 5 and under, could be stopped in a few years.
That vaccination campaign didn’t stop the epidemic, but it convinced Rotarians that they should lead the effort to eradicate polio. At the RI Convention in 1985 in Kansas City, Rotarians voted to launch a campaign to raise $120 million to vaccinate children against polio. But Rotarians didn’t raise $120 million – they raised $250 million, and the campaign was on! (Since then, Rotarians have contributed more than $2.2 billion to the campaign through PolioPlus.)
Soon, the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and others joined Rotary in the campaign. The official campaign started in 1988 when the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), said to be largest international public health initiative in history, was launched. Now, nearly 40 years and $19 billion later, polio has been reduced by 99.9% and millions of children have been saved from paralysis and death, but it still has not been eradicated. (90% immunization is considered necessary to stop it.)
Safe to say, this worldwide effort likely would not have started when it did had it not been for Rotary and Rotarians. As cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead said: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” And that’s what Rotarians are doing!
For much more information, go to https://polioeradication.org/ and https://www.rotary.org/en/history-rotary-polio-eradication-efforts.