ROTARY has announced $35 million in grants to support the global effort to end polio, including $15 million to support polio eradication efforts in five African countries.

In 2015, Africa proved a hub of historic progress against the paralysing disease. Nigeria – the last polio-endemic country in Africa – was removed from the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) list of endemic countries in September, following one year without a new case of the wild virus. The last wild polio case on the African continent was in August 2014.
 
Chairman of Rotary’s International PolioPlus Committee, Michael K. McGovern, said: “We are closer than ever to achieving a polio-free world. To ensure that no child ever again suffers the devastating effects of this disease, we must all ensure that the necessary funds and political will are firmly in place in 2016.”  

Today, just two countries – Afghanistan and Pakistan – are reporting a single strain of the wild virus.

To sustain this progress, and protect all children from polio, experts say $1.5 billion is urgently needed. Without full funding and political commitment, the disease could return to previously polio-free countries, putting children everywhere at risk.