A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege, of joining Rotary President Gordon McInally, fellow District Governors and other Rotarians, Commonwealth High Commissioners, members of Parliament, and representatives from the WHO at a seminar, held in Parliament, updating us on the END POLIO campaign. An excellent insight into the progress being made towards achieving the ambition of eradicating this disease by 2026. At the time of writing no new cases of Wild Polio have been notified this year. India is about to celebrate 10 years of being Wild Polio free.
The UK and Ireland have contributed $1.7bn to the campaign, second only to The USA – a truly magnificent effort – but we must not be complacent and remember that the virus is only a plane ride away, so donations are still needed. For those of you interested in more information there was an excellent report on the meeting in the Guardian of 16th March.
DG Rotary International – Norman Waddell