Rotary International, one of the largest service organisations in the world, has organised the event and invited the press beforehand -- with an aim to further emphasise the importance of vaccinating against polio.
370 million children must be vaccinated every year to completely eradicate polio by 2026. Despite progress, there have been 12 reported cases of polio in Afghanistan and four reported cases in Pakistan since January of this year. Joseph Faber of Rotary International emphasised that even though the number of cases may seem small, vaccination efforts should not be relaxed:
“If we keep going at this pace, in about 10 years, 100,000 children will be infected again. The virus is circulating and 1 out of 300 children contracting it will be paralysed. But all the other children are still infected and can pass the virus on.”
Because it’s largely an asymptomatic disease, the danger lies in how quickly it can spread. To keep the virus at bay, various initiatives have been taken in Luxembourg as well. Dr. Anne Vergison from the Health Inspection Department explained that, among other measures, additional attention is paid to people coming from countries where polio continues to circulate:
“We undergo testing, to make sure those people are not infected. This is something we also need to share with the WHO.”
The Luxembourg government invests 1 million euros each year in campaigns to eradicate polio.
