Polio is a crippling and potentially deadly infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. The virus spreads from person to person and can invade an infected person’s brain and spinal cord, causing paralysis. Thanks to the polio vaccine, dedicated health care professionals, and parents who vaccinate their children on schedule, polio has been eliminated in this country for more than 30 years. However, children and adults are still fighting this disease in other parts of the world, including Asia, Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The aim is to eradicate polio completely. The World Health Organization (WHO) hopes to achieve global eradication of polio by 2018. Unfortunately , 2018 has seen a slight uptick in reported cases, even here in the United States.
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is a public-private partnership led by national governments with five partners – the World Health Organization (WHO), Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Its goal is to eradicate polio worldwide.
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It wasn't until 1953 that Jonas Salk developed the first polio vaccine which was commemorated by this U.S. Postal Stamp in 1999.
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Tony Lake, Executive Director of UNICEF, explained at the launch of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative Strategic Plan 2010-2012 in June 2010,
Let’s act and let’s act with an eye to results. We must all dedicate ourselves to writing this final chapter and closing the book on polio forever. For every child.”
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