Oct 23, 2019 12:00 PM
Wayne Staton
Rotary's Efforts to Eradicate Polio

It is an achievable goal to eradicate polio throughout the world, said Wayne Staton, a member and past president of the Sharpstown Rotary Club in Houston. Rotary International began its PolioPlus campaign in 1985 and in 1988 joined the World Health Organization as a partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

Wednesday marks Rotary International's annual World Polio Day, a day to bring awareness to the campaign and raise money to help reach the goal of eliminating the disease worldwide.

The push to eradicate polio is personal for Staton as a polio survivor. His diagnosis came when he was 8 months old, growing up in Lynchburg, Virginia. He contracted the virus in 1952, three years before the polio vaccine was first distributed throughout the United States.

Since the World Health Organization started its initiative 30 years ago, Staton said, 16 million people who contracted polio are walking today that otherwise would not have been able to because of the effects of the virus.

To see the progress made by Rotary in our monumental efforts to eradicate polio worldwide, visit www.EndPolioNow.org