World Polio Day Arrives October 24: Wild Poliovirus Remains Endemic Only in Afghanistan and Pakistan as the CDC Joins the Global Eradication Effort
October 24 is World Polio Day. The observance was established by Rotary International to commemorate the birthday of Jonas Salk, who led the team that developed the first polio vaccine, and is marked each year by the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and other partners as the flagship awareness day of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI).
When the initiative was launched in 1988, polio paralyzed an estimated 350,000 children a year worldwide. After more than three decades of immunization work, transmission of the wild poliovirus has fallen by more than 99 percent, and the virus remains endemic in only two countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The United States has been free of wild poliovirus since 1979; in 2022, New York State reported one paralytic case caused by a vaccine-derived poliovirus in an unvaccinated adult.
The CDC is one of the initiative's core partners, providing laboratory and surveillance support to countries through its global immunization program. The day is observed every October 24, with health agencies and Rotary clubs around the world holding vaccination awareness activities.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 国外印度一名儿童接受口服脊髓灰质炎疫苗（资料图）。照片：Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 摄，Public domain，经维基共享资源。 / A child receiving oral polio vaccine in India (file photo). Photo by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
