Why End Polio?

Top 5 Reasons to End Polio Now

To end polio, we must stop transmission of the virus in the two countries where it remains endemic: Afghanistan and Pakistan. We must also keep all other countries polio-free until we're certain it won't resurface. Up to 60 high-risk countries still operate large-scale immunization campaigns to protect children against polio.

Aidan O'Leary, Director for Polio Eradication at WHO, speaks at Rotary’s World Polio Day 2022 and Beyond:

We are closer than ever to eradicating the wild poliovirus, with endemic transmission restricted to a handful of areas in just two countries – Pakistan and Afghanistan. Let us all recommit now, and achieve Rotary’s dream of a world free of this debilitating disease. By working together, we can give the world one less infectious disease to worry about once and for all.

Aidan O'Leary, Director of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, World Health Organization

Learn About Our Partners

1

To Improve Lives

18 million people are walking today who would have otherwise been paralyzed by polio.
Children play on a street as health workers visit a house during door-to-door polio vaccinations in a community in Islamabad, Pakistan.
A child in Islamabad, Pakistan, holding up two fingers
2

To Invest in the Future

If polio isn't eradicated, within 10 years, as many as 200,000 children could be paralyzed by it each year.

What You Don’t Know About the Campaign to End Polio

There is more to eradicating a disease than just immunizing children.
  

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3

To Improve Child Health

Polio surveillance networks and vaccination campaigns also monitor children for other health problems like vitamin deficiency and measles, so they can be addressed sooner.
  

Triple Your Impact

Health workers immunize children during a national immunization day in Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan.
Tayyaba Gul, of the Rotary Club of Islamabad (Metropolitan), examines a vile of vaccine at the Resource Centre she established in Nowshera, Pakistan.
4

To Save Money

A polio-free world will save the global economy 
$40-$50 billion in health costs within the next 20 years.

The Importance of Surveillance

Surveillance is one of the most important jobs done to eradicate polio. And today, new and innovative approaches are being used to find viruses before they even cause symptoms.
  

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5

To Make History

Polio eradication would be one of history's greatest public health achievements, with polio following smallpox to become only the second human disease eliminated from the world.
  

Be a Part of History

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