Think Polio has been eradicated?   Carolyn Huston, District 6600 chair for the Polio Plus campaign, updated North Coast Rotary Club on the fight.  Thirty years ago when Rotary got involved with the eradication of polio, there were 1,000 new cases every day, world-wide.  Today, polio is minimally active in a few countries.  The goal, of course, is total eradication as was done with smallpox.  If all of the polio virus is not eradicated, it would take just 10 years for it to flourish once again, world-wide.

It would be, as Carolyn said, just a plane ride away [from the US].  Rotary International is determined to finish off this disease, in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  Total eradication is measured by no new cases for three years; vaccination would continue for 10 years beyond that.

Contributions can be made directly to Rotary International at http://www.endpolio.org or contribute to the Polio Eradication campaign by playing the “Puttin-Out-Polio” golf game at the September 24th Avon Home Depot Safety Fair and the October 6th Avon Lake Great Pizza Bake-off.