Ending Polio
Forty years ago, polio paralysed hundreds of thousands of children every year. Today the disease clings on in just two countries. We won't stop until it's gone for good.
The end is in sight
From a global child-killer to a virus on its last legs.
- 99.9 % drop in cases since 1988
- 20 Million children saved from paralysis
- 2 Countries where wild polio remains endemic
- 40 Years of Rotary commitment
What polio takes
Polio is a virus that mainly attacks children under five. It travels silently through contaminated water and food, and the harm it leaves behind is permanent — paralysis, deformity, sometimes death. There is no cure.
There is only a vaccine: two drops on a child’s tongue, costing roughly 60 cents a dose. The cheapest insurance policy any society has bought against one of the cruellest diseases of the twentieth century.
A founding partner of the eradication effort
In 1985 Rotary made a single, very public promise: a polio-free world. Three years later we co-founded the Global Polio Eradication Initiative with the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Gavi joined the partnership later.
Since then Rotary members worldwide have contributed more than US$2.6 billion to the cause and helped immunise more than three billion children. Wild polio cases have collapsed from around 350,000 a year across 125 countries in 1988 to just two endemic countries today: Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Two of the three wild polio strains have already been declared eradicated. Only type 1 still circulates in the wild — and we are closing in on it.
What District 1160 is doing
Rotary clubs across the island raise funds for End Polio Now every year. Around World Polio Day on 24 October, you’ll see public buildings lit purple, crocus bulbs planted on village greens, sponsored walks, dinners, and quiz nights. Purple is our colour for a reason: it’s the dye marker put on the finger of every vaccinated child, so volunteers know that child doesn’t need to be reached again.
And here’s the multiplier: every euro raised by Rotary Ireland is matched two-to-one by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. €100 from a club table quiz becomes €300 in vaccines.
Four ways to join the final push
- Donate — every euro you give is tripled by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation match.
- Attend a World Polio Day event — clubs across Ireland host walks, dinners, and quiz nights every October.
- Join a Rotary club — and bring your network, energy, and ideas to a cause that touches every continent.
- Light something purple — landmarks, schools, your own home, on 24 October.
Help us finish the job.
Polio is one virus, two countries away from becoming only the second human disease ever eradicated. Every euro and every voice gets us closer.