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The Rotary Foundation's PolioPlus Program

PolioPlus –the most ambitious program in Rotary's history, is the volunteer arm of the global partnership dedicated to eradicating polio. For more than 20 years, Rotary has led the private sector in the global effort to rid the world of this crippling disease. Today, PolioPlus and its role in the initiative is recognized worldwide as a model of public-private cooperation in pursuit of a humanitarian goal.

Rotarians have mobilized by the hundreds of thousands to ensure that children are immunized against this crippling disease and that surveillance is strong, despite the poor infrastructure, extreme poverty, and civil strife of many countries. Since the PolioPlus Program’s inception in 1985, more than two billion children have received oral polio vaccine.

To date, 210 countries, territories and areas around the world are polio free and 134 of these have been certified. As of June 2007, Rotary has committed more than $633 million to global polio eradication. 2006-07 expenditures: $23.7 million. (includes PolioPlus Partners grants)

“Rotary’s PolioPlus program is a shining example of the achievements made possible by cooperation between the United Nations and nongovernmental organizations.” - Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan

PolioPlus Partners is a program that allows Rotarians to participate in the polio eradication effort by contributing to specific social mobilization and surveillance activities in polio-endemic countries. As of 30 June 2007, over 6,000 clubs in 502 districts have contributed to 470 PolioPlus Partners projects, supporting National Immunization Days and other polio eradication activities around the world.

What exactly is polio?

A crippling and potentially fatal infectious disease, polio (poliomyelitis) still strikes children mainly under the age of five in countries in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
Polio can cause paralysis and sometimes death. Because there is no cure for polio, the best protection is prevention. For as little as US$0.60 worth of vaccine, a child can be protected against this crippling disease for life.
It can cause paralysis within hours, and polio paralysis is almost always irreversible.
In the most severe cases, polio attacks the motor neurons of the brain stem, causing breathing difficulty or even death.
Historically, polio has been the world’s greatest cause of disability.

Help eradicate polio

If polio isn’t eradicated, the world will continue to live under the threat of the disease. More than 10 million children will be paralyzed in the next 40 years if the world fails to capitalize on its US$4 billion global investment in eradication.

Challenges to polio eradication

Health experts agree that these primary challenges must be overcome in order to reach the goal of polio eradication:

Halting the spread of the poliovirus in the four remaining endemic countries (Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan), which continue to export it to polio-free areas
Curbing the intense spread of the poliovirus in northern Nigeria and western Uttar Pradesh, India
Rapidly stopping polio outbreaks in previously polio-free countries
Addressing low routine-immunization rates and surveillance gaps in polio-free areas
Maintaining funding and political commitment to implement the eradication strategies

2007-08 PolioPlus Partners Challenge
to all Rotarians, Clubs and Districts

Progress – Polio Eradication IS Realistic: The technical feasibility of eradicating wild-type poliovirus was confirmed in October 1999 when the last case of paralytic polio due to wild poliovirus type 2 (1 of 3 types) was detected anywhere in the world. By 2002, the feasibility of eradication was reaffirmed by certification of eradication of all 3 wild poliovirus types in three of the six World Health Organization (WHO) Regions.1

The Case – Completing Polio Eradication: In 2006, only four countries still had wild-type poliovirus, limited to small geographic regions of Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan. This war on polio will not be won until the last case of polio is gone.2 This must be done as quickly as possible.

PolioPlus: Rotary launched the PolioPlus program in 1985 and contributions to the PolioPlus Fund continue to support the most essential components of polio eradication activities in our partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and UNICEF. With Rotary’s community-based network worldwide, Rotary is the volunteer arm of the global partnership dedicated to eradicating polio.

PolioPlus Partners: In 1995, a sub-program of PolioPlus, the PolioPlus Partners program (PPP), was developed to allows individuals, Rotary clubs, and districts the opportunity to directly contribute to polio eradication projects submitted by fellow Rotarians in polio-endemic, importation, and high-risk countries through the PPP Open Projects List.

The Need – PolioPlus Partners in 2007-08: Contributions to PPP go directly to Rotarians conducting social mobilization and surveillance activities in the polio-endemic, importation, and high risk countries. Social mobilization is organized community activities designed to help make immunization activities successful. Rotarians play a critical role in these activities by using PPP contributions to purchase:

- Media and posters to communicate when and where the immunization activities will occur.
- Caps, aprons, badges, and megaphones to identify health workers and volunteers.
- Stickers or balloons to reward children and parents to encourage future participation.
- Bicycles, 4-wheel drive vehicles, and motorcycles to distribute the vaccine.
- Vaccine carriers, refrigerators, and ice packs to maintain the integrity of the vaccine.

These tools are provided through the PolioPlus Partners program. Additional funding of at least US$5 million will be needed to purchase these tools in 2007-08.

The Incentive – Matching Funds for PolioPlus Partners: Since the Polio Eradication Fundraising Campaign (PEFC) ended in 2005, fundraising for PPP, in addition to PolioPlus, remains a priority. The Trustees of The Rotary Foundation recognize the significant funding needs for PPP and will continue to match both cash and District Designated Funds (DDF) contributions US$.50 for every US$1.00; up to US $1 million in 2007-08. This matching opportunity is an incentive for individuals, clubs, and districts to make a contribution to PolioPlus Partners in 2007-08.

The 2007-08 PolioPlus Partners Challenge – What Can Rotarians Do? Funding for PolioPlus Partners is essential to help all Rotarians achieve the goal of a polio-free world. To help meet the significant and ongoing funding needs, we are extending a Challenge to all Rotarians, clubs, and districts to become 2007-08 PolioPlus Partners:

1. Asking for 100% participation from all Rotary districts to allocate a minimum of 10% of their available DDF.

2. Asking all Rotary clubs and districts, Interact and Rotaract clubs to have a club program for PolioPlus Partners by March 2008.

3. Requesting district leaders to encourage all clubs chartered after 1 July 2003 to consider making a club contribution, having a fundraiser, or making individual contributions to PolioPlus Partners.

4. Requesting zone, district, and club leaders to encourage new members after 1 July 2003 to contribute and become a part of Rotary’s number one goal of global polio eradication.

5. Encouraging all Rotarians that view PolioPlus as their primary Rotary interest to make another contribution to PolioPlus Partners.

With everyone’s continuing support, we shall demonstrate our resolve and achieve the final goal of a polio-free world for all the worlds’ children.

1The World Health Organization 2007, ‘Case for Completing Polio Eradication’, viewed 21 June 2007
2The goal of the PolioPlus program is the global certification of polio eradication. By eradication, WHO, the Global Commission on Certification, and Rotary mean the interruption of the transmission of the wild poliovirus.

Polio

A Rotarian immunizes a child against polio. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Photo by Rotary Images.

Decades ago, polio outbreaks were a constant threat around the world. After the introduction of polio vaccines by Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin and a steadfast immunization effort, these outbreaks became part of history in most of the world.

Yet many still live under the threat of polio, which is why Rotary and its global partners are committed to reaching every child with the vaccine and ending this disease worldwide.

Major gains have been made in the global fight against polio:

In the 1980s, 1,000 children were infected by the disease every day in 125 countries. Today, polio cases have declined by 99 percent, with fewer than two thousand cases reported in 2006.
Two billion children have been immunized, five million have been spared disability, and over 250,000 deaths from polio have been prevented.

Contribute to stopping polio

The biggest obstacles to eradicating polio are the underfunding of the global initiative and insufficient political commitment from the remaining polio-affected countries. Rotary International believes the primary source for additional funds can and should be governments of polio-free industrialized countries. Your contribution to Polio will help ensure that we keep doing our part to get the job done.

Contribute to PolioPlus Partners

PolioPlus Partners allows individuals, Rotary clubs, and districts to support urgent social mobilization and surveillance projects submitted by Rotarians in polio-endemic, importation, and high-risk countries. In 2006-07, the Trustees of The Rotary Foundation allocated US$1 million to match, on a first-come, first-served basis, cash contributions to PolioPlus Partners at a level of US$0.50 for each $1 contributed.

Contribute to the PolioPlus Fund

The PolioPlus Fund provides global-level funds through Trustee-reviewed grants to the initiative based on strategic priorities.

What your gift can do

A contribution of US$135 will buy a bicycle to distribute vaccine to villages
A contribution of $250 will buy T-shirts to make health workers highly visible during a National Immunization Day
A contribution of $200 will buy 10,000 pamphlets to inform the public about an upcoming immunization campaign
A contribution of $1,000 will buy 700 vaccine carriers to ensure the oral polio vaccine is maintained at the correct temperature

*All contributions to PolioPlus and PolioPlus Partners are eligible for Paul Harris Fellow Recognition.

Give through Rotary

Friends of Rotary are welcome to add their support to Rotary’s number-one goal. Contribute to stopping polio today.

Four key strategies for stopping poliovirus transmission:

Routine immunization
High infant-immunization coverage with four doses of oral polio vaccine (OPV) in the first year of life is critical. Routine immunization is essential because it’s the primary way that polio-free countries protect their children from the threat of imported polio.
National Immunization Days
For decades, Rotary’s PolioPlus program has been one of the driving forces during National Immunization Days, or NIDs. Rotarians are involved in myriad ways before, during, and after an NID, by providing funds for millions of drops of vaccine, promoting upcoming campaigns in the community, distributing vaccine to local health centers, serving as monitors, working with local officials to reach every child, and participating in surveillance efforts.
Surveillance
Rotarians play an important role in working with health workers, pediatricians, and others to find, report, and investigate cases of acute flaccid paralysis in timely manner (ideally within 48 hours of onset). PolioPlus Partners sometimes helps fund containers that preserve the integrity of stool samples during transport to laboratories. The program has also played a leading role in providing equipment for the global poliovirus laboratory.
Targeted mop-up campaigns
Rotary’s support of mop-up campaigns is similar to NID volunteering, but on a smaller, often “house-to-house,” scale.

Generous contributions to PolioPlus help fund these activities and bring us closer to polio eradication. Contribute to stopping polio today.

Progress in curbing type 1 poliovirus continues - Wide-scale use of monovalent oral polio vaccine type 1 (mOPV1) continues to have a significant impact on curbing transmission of this particular virus serotype. Progress in curbing type 1 poliovirus continues. From www.polioeradication.org - 29 August 2007

Wide-scale use of monovalent oral polio vaccine type 1 (mOPV1) continues to have a significant impact on curbing transmission of this particular virus serotype. It is the more dangerous of the two remaining virus types, given its historically higher disease burden and ability to spread internationally. Only three type 1 cases have been reported this year from the western part of Uttar Pradesh state, India, arguably the most historically entrenched type 1 reservoir in the world.

At the same time, no type 1 cases have been reported in Kano, Nigeria, since October 2006 – a remarkable achievement, given that Kano was the epicenter of a major international epidemic which re-infected 20 previously polio-free countries in 2003-2006.
Visit the "Whatever Happened to Polio?" exhibit on display at the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation in Georgia, USA.

The exhibit was transferred from the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History in August, to be permanently displayed at the Warm Springs Institute, where former U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt sought treatment for polio. Call the Warm Springs Institute at 706-655-5666 for more information.

Download Application to Contribute & Receive Paul Harris Award
(make sure to check PolioPlus box to help with the promise)

Through Foundation grants and programs, Rotarians and other contributors can help change the world. They can finance a well for a village that lacks clean water, improve the environment, or provide scholarships to educate the next generation. The grants and programs available to Rotarians allow them to realize Rotary’s humanitarian mission throughout the world, including its number-one goal of eradicating polio.

View 2000-2005 District Polio News

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