Over 300 participate in the South Lake Tahoe Polio Walk

Community members joined Rotarians on Saturday as they walked the streets of South Lake Tahoe to show support and raise awareness of Rotary International’s effort to eradicate polio in the world. Over 300 people joined in the 3k walk which proceeded along Highway 50 in Stateline, past Edgewood Tahoe, by Lakeside Beach and back to the beginning at the corner of Stateline Avenue and Highway 50 at McP's Taphouse.

"We won't quit until no child has to endure this horrible disease," said Joe Zarachoff, Stateline, NV resident and District Governor of Rotary District 5190. "It was thrilling today with over 300 walking."

The Rotary District is having their annual conference in South Lake Tahoe this weekend so many of them participated in the walk along with people from the local community. Everyone who signed up received a t-shirt and commemorative water bottle. Proceeds went to the polio eradication efforts.

The actual vaccine costs just 14 cents, but keeping it refrigerated and transported around the world adds to the expense. The polio vaccine protects against poliomyelitis, a highly contagious viral disease that can cause paralysis and, in a small number of cases, death.

Even though the disease is gone from the United States, that isn't the case in other countries. As of May 13, 2105, there have been 23 new cases of polio this year. 22 of those have been in Pakistan and 1 in Afghanistan. The great news is that there have been no cases in Nigeria since July 2014.

More than one million Rotarians have donated their time and personal resources to lead the way to eradicate polio. Rotary has contributed more than $1.3 billion and countless volunteer hours to immunize more than 2.5 billion children in 122 countries. In addition, Rotary’s advocacy efforts have played a role in decisions by donor governments to contribute more than $9 billion to the effort.

Today, there are only three countries that have never stopped transmission of the wild polio virus (Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan). Less than 370 polio cases were confirmed worldwide in 2014, which is a reduction of more than 99 percent since the 1980s, when the world saw about 1,000 cases per day. The polio cases represented by the remaining one percent are the most difficult to prevent, due to factors including geographical isolation, poor public infrastructure, armed conflict and cultural barriers. Until polio is eradicated, all countries remain at risk of outbreaks.

Photos by Brian Williams and South Tahoe Now.