The 24th October was designated as this year’s World Polio Day and, for 35 years, Rotary have been involved with helping to eradicate Polio worldwide.
The Rotary Club of Ilkley Wharfedale have purchased 4,000 crocus bulbs as part of the Purple4Polio drive by Rotary in Great Britain & Ireland for a Polio free world.
The bulbs have, in turn, been donated to (but not limited to) Friends of Ilkley Moor, Friends of Ilkley Riverside Parks, Improving Ilkley and these bulbs are currently in flower in such locations as the Station Plaza and Fountain flower beds as well as Riverside Park and Darwin Gardens. These are adding a splash of colour around the town.
A spokesperson for the Rotary Club of Ilkley Wharfedale said:
“If you notice these crocuses throughout Ilkley, please think, Ilkley, through the Rotary Club of Ilkley Wharfedale, is playing its part, however small, in eradicating Polio throughout the world.”
Since Rotary began its campaign against polio 35 years ago, two of the wild polio virus types have been eradicated and five of the six World Health Organization regions have been declared polio-free. Over 2.5 billion children have been immunised and 21 million saved from paralysis. From wild polio being endemic in 125 countries, there are just two today – Pakistan and Afghanistan although the numbers of cases have dropped from 1,000 a day to just a few cases this year.
What is Polio? Poliomyelitis is a highly infectious disease that most commonly affects children under the age of 5. Most know it as poliovirus. The virus is spread person to person, typically through contaminated water. It can attack the nervous system, and in some instances, lead to paralysis or even death.
Although there is no cure, there is a safe and effective vaccine – one which Rotary and its partners have used to immunize over 2.5 billion children worldwide.
Rotary has committed to raising £38 million per year for polio eradication.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged to match that 2-to-1, for a total commitment of around £115 million each year. These funds provide much-needed operational support, medical workers, laboratory equipment, and educational materials.
This is the 47th year that Rotary have focused on polio, starting in 1979, where all the children in the Philippines were vaccinated, to today with the objective to eradicate polio globally. Global events, national disasters, conflicts, COVID and changing priorities have, unfortunately, adversely affected the schedules.
Only five years ago polio eradication was in the best position it had ever been in and 2023 was to be the year that the transmission of the polio virus would be eradicated. Despite the oral polio vaccine being more extensively used to counter mutations and though cases have become more geographically confined with numbers coming down, it’s not enough to meet the 2023 target.
Recently there has been an up-tick in cases following COVID and experts have agreed that the timelines should be extended for wild polio virus eradication to 2027, and the variant polioviruses to 2029. This is important work as without it we could see this awful disease coming back to haunt us.
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