As we prepare for World Polio Day this Monday 24 October, here are the Top 5 Reasons to End Polio Now edited from an article by PDG Murray Verso, End Polio Now Coordinator.
To Improve Lives
Today, 19 million people who would otherwise be paralysed by polio are walking, and 1.5 million people who would otherwise have died are alive.
To Invest in the future & Improve Child Health
If all eradication efforts stopped today, within 10 years, polio could paralyse as many as 200,000 children each year. Polio surveillance networks and vaccination campaigns also monitor children for other health problems.
To Save Money
The global effort to eradicate polio has already saved more than $27 billion in health care costs since 1988, and expects to save $14 billion more by 2050.
To Make History
Polio eradication would be one of history's greatest public health achievements, with polio following smallpox to become only the second human disease eliminated from the world.
This week, in honour of World Polio Day and to generate conversations, all meeting attendees will be dipping their pinkie in purple ink.
To end polio, we must stop transmission of the virus in the two countries where it remains endemic, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and we must stop the virus spreading to other countries as it has done this year with cases of wild polio in Malawi and Mozambique.
Let’s continue the conversation.
