World Polio Day (24 October) was established by Rotary International over a decade ago to commemorate the birth of Jonas Salk, who led the very first team to develop a vaccine against poliomyelitis.
Utilization of this inactivated poliovirus vaccine and subsequent widespread use of the oral poliovirus, put together by Albert Sabin, triggered the establishment with the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) in 1988. At the time of 2013, GPEI had reduced polio worldwide by 99%.
Polio is often a crippling and potentially terminal infectious disease. There is no cure, but there are safe and efficient vaccines. Polio could be prevented through immunization.
Polio vaccine, given multiple times, typically protects a young child for life. The process to eradicate polio is therefore according to preventing infection by immunizing every child until transmission stops and also the world is polio-free.
