Calendar Year or “Rotary Year” – it can be confusing, especially when reporting statistics related to polio. GPEI, the CDC, and WHO report Polio case numbers using the calendar year; yet in Rotary we report dollars raised to End Polio using the Rotary year (July 1 through June 30). It is useful to periodically assess where we are with both.
Many of us involved in polio eradication efforts had high hopes the world would see the last child paralyzed by wild poliovirus sometime in this calendar year, but unfortunately that hasn’t happened. As of mid-December, 12 cases of wild poliovirus-causing paralysis were reported (6 in Afghanistan and 6 In Pakistan) and 129 environmental samples positive for wild polio virus were reported. It can take up to a month or more to confirm that a person’s acute flaccid paralysis was caused by polio, so statistics for 2023 are not finalized.
On the other hand, Rotarians in the Big West are being even more generous with their donations to Polio Plus during the first half of this Rotary year when compared with the same time period last year. Thank you! Your support is more critical than ever in order to eradicate this horrible disease once and for all. We must stay the course.
Questions? Please contact us: Mike Crosby at epnczone27@zone2627.org or Marny Eulberg at epnczone26@zone2627.org
