Rotary talks World Polio Day

PRINCE GEORGE–Oct.24th marks World Polio Day. Polio, a disease that has the misconception of no longer existing, but still does.

Numbers are not as prevalent as they once were, with a vaccine introduced to the public in 1955 which has taken cases from 350,000 in 1988 to only 33 reported cases in 2018. Polio is a highly contagious disease that mainly affects children under the age of 5, attacks the brain and nervous system and can potentially lead to death if left untreated.

Locally, Chris Offer with the Rotary Foundation will speak at a dinner organized by local the Rotary Clubs and the PG Rotaract Club about his experiences visiting countries around the world in efforts to put an end to the disease. “You’re seeing some people in some very difficult conditions, vaccinating children…and this will really change their lives. These children won’t get Polio, they won’t be crippled, they won’t be handicapped because of that disease, they’ve got all sorts of other obstacles in their lives in those communities, but this one we can help eliminate,” said Offer in an on-camera interview.

Safia Ibrahim, born in Somalia and now living in Toronto, says she contracted the disease when she was only a year old. Ibrahim is partially paralyzed from the waist down due to the disease, “Polio affected me obviously physically so I do have that pains and aches that come with post-polio syndrome, at the same time it has also affected me when it comes to parenting,” she told us in a Skype Interview.