PolioPlus Program

Rotary Foundation End Polio Now Program

Thanks to Rotary and its partners, the number of polio cases has been slashed by more than 99 percent, preventing five million instances of childhood paralysis and 250,000 deaths. When Rotary began its eradication work, polio infected more than 350,000 children annually. In 2008, fewer than 2,000 cases were reported worldwide.

Gates Message EN from Rotary International on Vimeo.

In a video message to Rotarians, Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, thanked Rotarians for their hard work in the effort to eradicate polio and congratulated Rotary for surpassing the halfway point in meeting Rotary’s US$200 Million Challenge.

“The work you’re doing to raise funds for the program is critical, especially given the tight government budgets and increasing costs for a very aggressive polio program,” Gates said. “Your work as advocates is also very important. We need to keep this fight high on the world’s list of priorities.