Polio was once one of the most feared diseases globally. A highly infectious disease with no cure, polio spread rapidly through communities and left devastation in its wake. Every year, thousands of children used to be killed and hundreds of thousands paralyzed. Today thanks to global efforts on the part of Rotary and other organizations, and innovative tools, polio cases are down 99.9%. Dr. Susan Hubbell told us that efforts to vaccinate children and adults cannot slack. In war-ravaged Gaza, large scale vaccinations are underway after the first reported case there in 25 years. In Ukraine, an outbreak was first detected in a young child in October 2021, following the importation of a poliovirus that had emerged in Pakistan and was previously detected in Tajikistan in 2021. A second child became paralyzed in December 2021, and an additional 19 close contacts tested positive without developing symptoms. A case of polio was reported in New York in a person who had come in contact with the disease overseas. She told us that this is why it's so important for polio vaccines to continue. "As long as a single child remains infected, children in all countries are at risk of contracting polio. Failure to eradicate polio from these •last remaining strongholds could result in a global resurgence of the disease."
Lima Rotary's PolioPlus Chair Keith Horner kicked off our PolioPlus campaign at Monday's meeting. The goal it to raise $3,000 toward the effort to eradicate polio.
Also at Monday's meeting, we inducted two new members: Kenny Schneider, Development Associate at Bluffton College, and Kayla Zehery, Director of Development at OSU/Lima. Please make them welcome!
