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May 20, 2002

INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS

"Rotary Will Be Honored for Global Polio Effort"

USA Today (www.usatoday.com) (05/20/02) P. 8D; Sternberg, Steve

Rotary International was recently awarded the $1 million Gates Award for Global Health by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for its work to eradicate polio.  Since 1984, Rotary International has raised $500 million to combat the disease, and its efforts have paid off.  In 1988, over 350,000 cases of the disease were reported around the world, but by 2001 that figure had dropped to just 480 cases.  Polio now occurs in just 10 countries, Angola, Sudan, Ethiopia, Egypt, Somalia, Niger, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan, and India.  Earlier this year, Rotary International organized a National Vaccination Day in India, during which 150 million children received the oral polio vaccine, and the group has been equally active in other countries where the disease can still be found.  Rotary recently launched a new fundraising drive, which it is hoping will raise about $80 million.  This money will go toward the $275 million that the World Bank says will be required to completely eradicate polio from the world.  Rotary's Polio Eradication Advocacy Task Force is urging the governments of developed countries to come up with the rest.

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