(24 Oct) Regular Meeting on World Polio Day (+GAL)

Posted in Galleries, Meeting, News and Events. Written by Admin on October 24th, 2018

The regular weekly meeting of Rotary Club Sofia International was held on 24 October at Hilton Sofia. The president of the club Mr. Enrico Repouz opened the meeting and gave the floor to our guests: Ms. Ajda Ramadanova and Mr. Yordan Dukov. They introduced themselves. Ms. Ramadanova is member of Interact Club Sliven, she briefed the present about her club, members, activities and projects. Mr. Yordan Dukov is our regular guest and we were happy to welcome him again.

Later on Ms. Hristova invited all members and guests to the Traditional “Party of Wine and Friendship” in the city of Harmanli. Organized by Rotary Club Harmanli. 

The meeting continued with Mr. Kertev providing details on the Preliminary PETS seminar held in Sofia, sharing information on the speakers and the topics discussed.

After the announcements and the invitations, Mr. Repouz gave the floor again to Ms. Hristova to say e few words about 24 October –  the World Polio Day.

World Polio Day was established by Rotary International over a decade ago to commemorate the birth of Jonas Salk, who led the first team to develop a vaccine against poliomyelitis. Use of this inactivated poliovirus vaccine and subsequent widespread use of the oral poliovirus, developed by Albert Sabin, led to the establishment of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) in 1988. As of 2013, GPEI had reduced polio worldwide by 99%.

Polio is a crippling and potentially fatal infectious disease. There is no cure, but there are safe and effective vaccines. Polio can be prevented through immunization. Polio vaccine, given multiple times, almost always protects a child for life. The strategy to eradicate polio is therefore based on preventing infection by immunizing every child until transmission stops and the world is polio-free.

In about 0.5 percent of cases there is muscle weakness resulting in an inability to move. This can occur over a few hours to a few days. The weakness most often involves the legs but may less commonly involve the muscles of the head, neck and diaphragm. Many people fully recover. In those with muscle weakness about 2 to 5 percent of children and 15 to 30 percent of adults die.

Rotary International has been trying to eradicate Polio. Thanks to the efforts of Rotary International with the support from the Foundation of Bill and Melinda Gates, and from the numerous donors to the campaign, we have seen a worldwide reduction in polio cases of 99.9%. Last year we only saw wild polio cases in three countries.

Rotary International is running a “We Are so Close to End the Polio” campaign, which aims at completely eliminating the disease. For more information: www.endpolio.org

After that official part of the meeting was closed and the fellowship continued in an informal atmosphere.

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