McCaig’s Tower lights up for World Polio Day

The Rotary Club of Oban is joining thousands of other Rotary clubs around the world in supporting World Polio Day 2018.

Rotary members are holding Purple4Polio events to raise awareness and donations for the Rotary campaign to End Polio Now.

If you are out and about in Oban, you may see McCaig’s Tower bathed in purple light, with the assistance of Argyll and Bute Council, as part of the club’s World Polio Day celebrations on October 24. Purple represents the dye placed on a child’s finger to show they have been immunised against the disease.

With millions of children vaccinated every year, in many instances in the space of just a few days, this makes it easier to see who has been protected and who has not. This was seen at first hand by Liz Crawford and Julie Beamish of Oban Inner Wheel who participated in the immunisation programme in India last year.

Since Rotary and its partners launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) more than 30 years ago, the incidence of polio has plummeted by more than 99.99 per cent, from about 350,000 cases a year in 125 countries to just 22 cases in 2017 and with just three remaining polio-endemic countries: Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria.