determined by James Hogle and colleagues (Harvard Medical School).
Image created by David Belnap (Brighton Young University from data
The Polio Problem
Poliomyelitis (polio), a highly infectious
disease, is triggered by a virus that invades
the nervous system and can cause muscle
paralysis and other serious health
complications.
1985 2008
350,000 cases < 1,500 cases
125 countries 4 countries
Polio mainly strikes children under five years of age.
Once a world-wide health threat, the wild poliovirus
is now endemic in only four countries: Afghanistan,
India, Nigeria and Pakistan.
Thanks to the
development of the
polio vaccine in the
1950s, the disease is Since Rotary began its PolioPlus programme, the number of polio cases world-wide has
now preventable. declined by more than 99 per cent, and the number of non-endemic countries has dropped
to four - Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan - the lowest in history.
Today, Rotary International and its partners in the Global
Polio Eradication Initiative - the World Health
Organisation, UNICEF, and the US Centre for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) - are immunising children
world-wide to reach the goal of a polio-free world.
Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland www.thanksforlife.org