The Tribune

Following last year’s success, the Rotary Club of New Providence will once again be hosting “A Dunking for Polio” in aid of the international service organisation’s mission to end polio.

The event takes place this Saturday at Arawak Cay from 12noon to 6pm and all members of the public are invited to take part. There will be hamburgers, hot dogs and drinks on sale. All proceeds are in aid of club funds and the Rotary Foundation. The general public is encouraged to come out and help the organisation to end polio worldwide once and for all.

Poliomyelitis (polio) is a highly infectious viral disease, which mainly affects young children. The virus is transmitted by person-to-person, spread mainly through the faecal-oral route or, less frequently, by a common vehicle (for example contaminated water or food) and multiplies in the intestine, from where it can invade the nervous system and can cause paralysis.

Initial symptoms of polio include fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness in the neck, and pain in the limbs. In a small proportion of cases, the disease causes paralysis, which is often permanent. There is no cure for polio, It can only be prevented by immunisation.

Polio still exists, although cases have decreased by over 99 per cent since 1988, from an estimated more than 350,000 cases to just 37 reported cases in 2016. This reduction is the result of the global effort to eradicate the disease. Today, only three countries in the world have never stopped transmission of polio – Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.

Despite the progress achieved since 1988, as long as a single child remains infected with poliovirus, children in all countries are at risk of contracting the disease, said Rotary. The poliovirus can easily be imported into a polio-free country and can spread rapidly amongst unimmunised populations. Failure to eradicate polio could result in as many as 200,000 new cases every year, within 10 years, all over the world.

According to end polio.org, since1985 Rotary has led the battle against polio, and kept the pressure on as worldwide cases plummeted from 350,000 per year to several hundred.

“When India went off the list of endemic countries in 2012, we took one more step toward eradicating a human disease from the earth for only the second time in history. Now, Rotary and its partners are this close to making that dream a reality,” the international organisation said.

“We are close to eradicating polio, but we need your help.”

Rotary International, the world’s first service club organisation, is made up of 33,000 clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas.

Its members form a global network of business, professional and community leaders who volunteer their time and talents to serve their communities and the world.

Rotary’s motto, ‘Service Above Self’, exemplifies the humanitarian spirit of the organisation’s more than 1.2 million members.

Strong fellowship among Rotarians and meaningful community and international service projects characterise Rotary worldwide.