Rotary Club Of Los Alamos Thanks Community For Purple Pinkie Polio Awareness Campaign Success
ROTARY News:
The Rotary Club of Los Alamos and Rotary Interact Club at the Los Alamos High School would like to thank the community and all our students who participated in our recent Purple Pinkie Polio Awareness Campaign.
It was a great success! Almost 1,100 students had their pinkies dipped in purple dye to signify their support of another child being vaccinated against this highly infectious virus.
The money raised will vaccinate approximately 1,800 children with just a drop of vaccine administered on the tongue. No injections!
Polio is a vaccine-preventable disease, yet it remains endemic in two countries: Afghanistan and Pakistan, who share a border. The wild poliovirus type 1 (WEPV1) is still endemic in these countries with outbreaks now reported in Gaza.
The Polio virus invades the nervous system and can cause paralysis in a matter of hours. It can be fatal, as it paralyses the muscles used for breathing or infects the brain. The World Health Organization cautions that if polio is not eradicated in Afghanistan and Pakistan, it could lead to as many as 200,000 new cases worldwide every year within 10 years.
Until the transmission of the Polio virus is interrupted in these two countries, all nations around the world, including the US, remain at risk to the importation of Polio. Countries with weak public health systems or immunization services and with those with travel or trade links to endemic countries are especially vulnerable.
You may ask how this affects us. After all, children in the United States are vaccinated at birth and Polio has long been eliminated in our country. However, a single case of Polio introduced by an infected individual could trigger the return of this devastating disease.
This is why the Rotary Club of Los Alamos has joined in partnership with Rotary International, the Centers for Disease Control, the Bill Gates Foundation, and the World Health Organization to raise funds for vaccinations and to continue to raise awareness about this terrible virus.
If you wish to contribute to this worthy cause, please send donations to support our efforts to the Rotary Club of Los Alamos, PO Box 853, Los Alamos, NM 87544.
And thank you, everyone, for your support.
