Past Rotary president speaks on polio

SUSSEX BOROUGH — Past District Governor Karen Ziegler of Rotary District 7470 spoke to the Wallkill Valley Rotary Club and gave an update on Rotary’s fight to End Polio Now.
Rotary International started a project worldwide in 1985 to eradicate the dreaded disease Polio. Rotary, the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988.
In 2007, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation joined Rotary in its commitment to ending polio.
Since 2013, the Gates Foundation has matched every $1 Rotary commits to polio eradication 2-to-1, up to $35 million per year. Rotary, with matching funds from the Gates Foundation, has contributed more than $1.6 billion to end polio.
Since the fight against polio was started, the number of polio cases has been reduced by 99.9 percent and reached more than 2.5 billion children worldwide with the vaccine. There are fewer polio cases today than ever before, but the goal is "zero cases".
Rotarians will celebrate "World Polio Day” on Oct. 24 by donating rolls of dimes toward the cost of eradicating this disease.
For more information go to www.endpolio.org.