Rotary Swift Current creates awareness about ongoing fight against polio
The Rotary Club of Swift Current focused on creating awareness about the ongoing fight against polio during October. Club members organized a lunch event on World Polio Day, Oct. 24.
The club also used the Rotary Swift Current Facebook page during the month to share info about the fight to end polio and to post personal reflections from members about polio.
Pat Richards noted in a post that he is one generation away from being affected and his mom remembers a time when the polio vaccination bus came to town.
“Our family had a neighbour who got polio in her 40s and had to move to a city with more services,” he wrote. “So it was literally right next door. I understand how lucky I am that I've never had to think about polio.”
Another club member posted about his family's experience with polio, including his father who got the disease at age 39.
“After several months including some paralysis, he recovered but his extended family and the doctor had to all help to get through it,” he wrote.
Two cousins in his family contracted polio as children, and one of them never fully recovered. Polio is a very contagious and debilitating disease.
There is no cure, but polio is preventable with a vaccine.
Rotary International has been playing an important role in the global fight against polio since 1979.
The organization has contributed over $US 1 billion and over two billion children have received the oral polio vaccine since Rotary International launched the PolioPlus initiative in 1985.
Polio continues to remain endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan, while up to 60 high-risk countries still have immunization campaigns to protect children against polio.
The complete eradication of polio will require ongoing coordinated efforts as well as initiatives to counter polio vaccine misinformation.
More information about the fight against polio is available at the Rotary International End Polio Now website (www.endpolio.org) and on the Global Polio Eradication Initiative website (www.polioeradication.org).