In 1985 Rotary launched PolioPlus to immunize every child in the world against polio.

Working with our partners and members of the global health community, together we will end polio. We MUST stay the course.

The GPEI (Global Polio Eradication Initiative) polio program delivers more than the polio vaccine.

Polio health workers also respond to malaria, Ebola, measles, and now COVID-19 – strengthening health systems and working toward improved health for all.

How Rotary became the Heart and Soul of Polio Eradication

There were just three of us at the time. There was so much opposition, but we had faith that this is just the beginning of a whole new horizon for Rotary. If we, all of us, knew then what we know now, I doubt we would have taken it on. It was a huge dream.

“This short documentary was filmed on the ground in India. Our Co-founder, Soren Dickens, traveled to Delhi with a Rotary group to film Rotarians distributing a vaccine to children in a worldwide effort to eradicate polio. The trip took the group to places such as the majestic Taj Mahal, "The Pink City", and Amer Fort, while also exposing the group to the villages where the vaccinations took place.”

"When I asked Bill Gates, 63, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, why polio, he began, 'Polio is a terrible disease.' An hour later, speaking to a group of Rotarians in Spokane, Washington, he said, “You know, we're going to get to the end of this and Rotary will be the reason that will happen.” Devin Thorpe

Anand Balachandran, former Coordinator Polio Transition, speaks to the GPEI about ensuring the infrastructure built up to eradicate polio will continue to benefit broader public health goals, long after the disease has been eradicated.

Honorine Mollard Billard, Polio Eradication Officer at WHO, speaks to the GPEI about critical country support to vaccination campaigns in Lao PDR, why it is important for polio-free countries to maintain high immunity, and the additional health interventions offered to communities during a polio campaign.

David Heymann, long-time public health expert, discusses what lessons smallpox eradication teaches us in eradicating a disease, and why it is critical to complete the job of polio eradication.

“Polio is largely seen as the gold standard for global health professionals working in disease eradication." "Thanks to international collaboration and the leadership of national governments, polio cases have fallen."

"Coffee with the Polio Experts" featuring Dr. Carolyn Sein from WHO

Polio: It's Only a Plane Ride Away.