Rotary Club of New Amsterdam hosts polio eradication walk – Guyana Times

As efforts continue to be made to eradicate polio, wars have been one of the main contributing factors for poliovirus cases still being found.
This is according to the President of the Rotary Club of New Amsterdam, Rafeek Kassim.
He made the disclosure on Sunday as the club joined with Rotary International in an awareness walk on the fight against polio.
Rotary launched PolioPlus in 1985 and was a founding member of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988. Since then, working in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO), more than 2.5 billion children have received the oral polio vaccine.

Poliovirus cases have decreased by over 99 per cent since 1988, from an estimated 350,000 cases in more than 125 endemic countries to 6 reported cases in 2021. Of the 3 strains of wild poliovirus (type 1, type 2, and type 3), wild poliovirus type two was eradicated in 1999 and wild poliovirus type three was eradicated in 2020.
According to the club’s President, for several years Rotary International has been boasting that polio is almost totally eradicated but today there are still six cases.
“Because of wars and certain countries Rotary cannot get into, that is the reason polio is still around. Had everything been fair and equal, I guess by now polio would have been eradicated.”
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are thirty-one countries reporting polio cases in 2023.

Immediate past President of the New Amsterdam club, Tajpaul Adjodhea, who is spearheading activities as it relates to awareness on the fight against polio, said it is hoped that within the shortest possible time, the world would be certified as polio-free.
Rotary International, he said, will continue its fight to ensure that this is achieved.
The New Amsterdam Club has committed to contribute US$1500 towards the international fight against polio.
On Sunday, Rotarians marched through East Canje, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) as part of its annual polio awareness walk.
Since 2007, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation joined the fight to eradicate polio, and has matched every dollar Rotary has put towards the fight 2-1.
“So the more money we put into this fight the more we will be getting from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,” Adjodhea said.
World Polio Day is observed on October 24. Its aim is to highlight the global efforts to end poliomyelitis. (G4)