It is World Polio Day today and Letterkenny Rotary members & Town Gardener David Donnelly will join the global community in rallying for support to eradicate the potentially deadly infectious disease.
World Polio Day was established by Rotary International over a decade ago to commemorate the birth of Jonas Salk, who led the first team to develop a vaccine against poliomyelitis.
In partnership with the WHO and Bill & Milanda Gates Foundation Rotary International made a commitment in 2017 to raise 450 billion dollars which results in an oral vaccination to immunize 2.5 billion children worldwide.
Polio is a crippling and potentially fatal infectious disease usually affecting children under 5 years of age for which there is no cure, but there are safe and effective vaccines. It can be spread person to person, typically through contaminated water.
Though the disease is eradicated from most of the countries, it still affects some of the most marginalized sections and poorest people in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria.
In spite of the success, if we fail to completely eradicate this highly infectious disease, there is a good possibility of it reappearing in the coming decades.
Therefore the main purpose of World Polio Day is to celebrate this great achievement but continue to spread the word, not the disease. However, until we end Polio forever with vaccinations, every child remains at risk.
The Rotary Club in Letterkenny is delighted to be involved in celebrating World Polio Day on October 24 and have been busy this week planting Purple Crocus corms in Ballymalcool Park adjacent to where the 2017 bulbs were planted near Ballymacool House.
The purple colour is symbolic with the colour of the Polio vaccine used by volunteers, and the Purple Crocus is used by Rotarians worldwide raising awareness on the Rotary fight against Polio.
This work was completed in association with Town Gardener David Donnelly and his staff and thanks to them for their dedication.
It is intended to enlarge the Crocus area on an annual basis, which will remain a symbolic reminder to us all of the ‘End Polio’ campaign for many years to come.
