Q: During the past 20 years, we’ve made a lot of progress against polio. Now, there are so many other terrible diseases that affect far more people than polio does. In fact, polio is almost eradicated, so why doesn’t Rotary International focus on another disease?

Put simply, the job is not finished, and Rotary keeps its promises. We promised the children of the world that they would grow up in a world without polio and that their children would not have to face the threat of that dreaded disease. If we are to fulfill this promise, we need to stay focused until there is no more wild poliovirus.

We all realize that children around the world are unfairly faced with myriad threats to their well-being. It is truly heartbreaking to see a child suffering from any disease that could have been prevented.

Though great progress has been made toward a polio-free world, we cannot turn our attention away now. Because current funding levels for polio immunization campaigns cannot be sustained indefinitely, cases would increase dramatically. Failure to eradicate polio would result in an estimated 10 million paralyzed children in the next 40 years and would negate the world’s US$5.3 billion investment in the initiative.

The only way to protect every child from polio is to eradicate this crippling and potentially fatal disease completely. The strategies and tools are known, and health experts agree that the challenges to stopping the spread of polio can be met. Rotary was the first organization to have the vision of a polio-free world, so we need to sustain our commitment to creating a world with one less threat for every child.