The Parish Church All Saints Church Oakham Rutland is lit in purple tonight by The Rotary Club
Joining thousands of Rotary clubs around the world in marking World Polio Day on 24 October the church tower is lit purple on the front Rotary’s mission to end polio.
The colour purple represents the colour of the dye placed on a child’s finger to show they have been immunised against the disease the lighting of the church tower celebrates the eradication of polio in the world in no small way funded by Rotary International and Bill Gates.
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.
Polio is a serious viral infection that used to be common in the UK and worldwide. There is no cure for the disease, which can cause temporary or permanent paralysis, which can be life threatening.
Cases of polio in the UK fell dramatically when routine vaccination was introduced in the mid-1950s. When Rotary and its partners launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative more than three decades ago, polio paralysed 1,000 children every day. Great progress has been made against the disease since then. Polio cases have dropped by 99.9 percent, from 350,000 cases in 1988 in 125 countries to 33 cases of wild poliovirus in 2018 in just two countries: Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Rotary has contributed more than £1.5 billion to ending polio since 1985.
For more information about polio, please visit:
