This year marks the 70th anniversary of Elliot Lake became a town in 1955.
1955 was also the year that the polio vaccine was introduced in Canada.
Rotary members in Elliot Lake are taking action in honor of the city’s anniversary and World Polio Day on October 24th by donating $1,955 to Rotary International’s End Polio Now campaign. The campaign aims to raise awareness, funds, and build support to end polio. Polio is a vaccine-preventable disease that still threatens children in parts of the world today.
Polio mainly affects children under the age of 5, but adults who have never been vaccinated can also be impacted. While many people infected with the virus experience mild or no symptoms, others develop more serious complications that can include permanent disability. In more severe cases, polio can lead to muscle weakness, paralysis, and even death. There is no cure. Polio can be prevented, however, with a safe and effective vaccine.
In the past few years only two countries have reported cases of polio caused by the wild virus. Polio remains endemic there. In the rest of the world the occasional small outbreak takes place where unvaccinated or under vaccinated people come into contact with those who have traveled from places where another outbreak has occurred. Healthcare professionals fear that these outbreaks may grow in frequency as vaccine hesitancy causes some people to resist getting their children vaccinated.
President of the Rotary Club of Elliot Lake, John Quackenbush, said “Our club members wanted to do something to draw attention to World Polio Day this year. We felt it was important to point out the success Rotary, and its partner organizations, have had in trying to wipe out polio from our planet.”
Rotary has contributed more than US$2.9 billion to fight polio and countless volunteer hours since launching its PolioPlus program in 1985. In 1988, Rotary joined in partnership with the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to form the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. The Gates Foundation and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, later joined. When the initiative launched, there were 350,000 cases of polio every year. Today, the incidence of polio has plummeted by more than 99.9 percent.
To sustain this progress and continue to reach every child with the polio vaccine, Rotary has committed to raising up to US$50 million each year to support global polio eradication efforts. The Gates Foundation has renewed its pledge through 2029 to match that 2-to-1 for a total yearly contribution of up to US$150 million.
About Rotary
Rotary brings together a global network of community leaders dedicated to tackling the world’s most pressing humanitarian challenges. We connect 1.2 million members from more than 45,000 Rotary clubs across the world. Their service improves lives both locally and internationally, from helping those in need in their own communities to working toward a polio-free world.
Visit Rotary.org and endpolio.org for more about Rotary and its efforts to eradicate polio.