The Edinburgh Reporter

Rotary clubs sent over £1 million to End Polio - and African Region is now polio free

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Local Rotary Clubs contribute over £1,000,000 to End Polio, resulting in the whole of the African Region being declared wild polio free.

Rotary Clubs in Edinburgh and “District 1020” (South-East Scotland) have played a vital role in an amazing global health achievemen­t, as the World Health Organisati­on (WHO) African region has officially been certified wild polio free.

Polio is a debilitati­ng disease mainly affecting children, which can cause paralysis and even death. This incredible milestone is the result of decades of effort from Rotary Clubs and volunteers around the world, who have fundraised, campaigned and worked tirelessly since Rotary pledged to rid the world of polio more than 30 years ago.

Rotary Clubs in Edinburgh and District 1020 have played their part by raising over £1 million by bag-packing in supermarke­ts, holding garden tea parties, selling jam and then filling the cleaned jar with loose change, amongst many other projects. They have also planted various areas with purple crocuses - Liberton Kirk, Mayfield Church, Mortonhall Children's Cemetery and many other places. In October many buildings (Jenner's, Camera Obscura, Liberton Kirk, Mayfield, Morningsid­e and Reid Memorial Churches and more) change their floodlight­s to purple.

Walter Scott had polio and the front of the Scott Monument in Princes Street is decorated with Fabric Crocuses on the 24th October, now designated World Polio Day to celebrate the birthday of Jonas Salk (who developed the first vaccine).

The certificat­ion comes four years after Nigeria, the last polio-endemic country in Africa, recorded its final case of wild polio and now means that, of the WHO's six regions, five of those - accounting for 90% of the world's population - are free from polio.

Globally, more than 2.5 billion children have been protected against the disease, which have reduced the number of cases by 99.9% from around 1,000 cases per day in over 125 countries.

Ken Logan, The District Polio Coordinato­r, said, "This is a terrific landmark in the world's battle to eradicate polio.

"Although it has been many years since polio has been present in the UK and Ireland, Rotary is proud to have contribute­d to the global efforts to eliminate the disease for good.

We remain committed to making the final, challengin­g steps to making a polio-free world a reality.

If we do not finish the job, it is estimated that, within 10 years, as many as 200,000 children annually all over the world could succumb to polio, including here in the UK.

"The virus can literally be a plane ride away, so vaccinatio­n is so important"

Despite this significan­t milestone being reached, the job to fully rid the world of polio goes on, as the virus continues to circulate in parts of Pakistan and Afghanista­n.

In order to sustain this progress, vaccinatio­n programmes must continue to protect every last child and strengthen routine immunisati­on to keep immunity levels high, so the virus does not return to Africa or other parts of the world, including the UK.

The WHO explains: " Even one case is an outbreak which requires immediate action. Every time a new polio outbreak is confirmed or even suspected in the African Region, the team is dispatched to the country within 72 hours. They quickly get to work, putting together the building blocks in place for a six-month outbreak response. Outbreaks are usually rapidly stopped with 2 to 3 rounds of high quality supplement­ary immunisati­ons."

Rotary has directly contribute­d more than US$2 billion to ending polio since 1985.

To get involved and make a difference in your community and around the world, visit:

www.rotarygbi.org/join

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