World Polio Day (October 24) was established by Rotary International to commemorate the birth of Jonas Salk, who led the first team to develop a vaccine against poliomyelitis.
The goal of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative is to ensure that no child will ever again know the crippling effects of polio. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is the largest public health initiative the world has ever known.
2014 is the first year with South East Asia certified as polio-free. India has completely eradicated Polio and on January 2014 India completed three full years without reporting any case of polio.
Pakistan has reached 210 cases of paralysis caused by wild polio virus in 2014. This is the highest number of cases on record by October in any year, and accounts for more than 85% of all cases worldwide.
Today, only 3 countries in the world have never stopped transmission of polio (Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan). Until polio virus transmission is interrupted in these countries, all countries remain at risk of importation of polio.