Shirley Giltzow is our District PolioPlus Chair and Past President of the Lawndale Club. She reviewed the progress of our worldwide polio eradication campaign. (Our Club President-Elect John Jaacks noted that his son had gotten polio many years ago, and will be visiting our Club in the near future to present a program on Post-Polio Syndrome.)

There were 350,000 polio cases per year in 1985, but now there are less than 100 per year, and they are endemic now only in Afghanistan and Pakistan (not surprisingly, in war areas). However, in January 2016, 16 polio workers in Pakistan were killed, and 65 were killed last year, giving their lives for the goal of polio eradication. The Rotary Foundation has requested a donation of $1/member in our District to honor the memory of those killed in the line of duty. President-Elect John Jaacks presented a check to Shirley Giltzow for the Rotary Foundation for our Club’s contribution.

$1.5 billion additional funding will be needed by 2018. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will provide a 2:1 matching Grant for the first $35 million to PolioPlus each year until then to help meet this goal.  (Note: Type 3 polio has not been seen in the last 3 years, which means that this particular strain has probably disappeared forever. 2 more strains to go!} The donation website is http://www.endpolio.org/donate.