Saturday, Oct. 24, is World Polio Day. This date was set by the Rotary Foundation a decade ago and was selected based on the birth date of Dr. Jonas Salk, who led the development of the polio vaccine.

Things to celebrate this year are the fact that Nigeria, one of the three nations left in the world with recent cases of the wild poliovirus, has gone more than one year without a new case. The other two nations left, Pakistan and Afghanistan, have experienced 28 cases and just one case this year respectively. A nation must go three years with no new cases to be declared “polio free.” Since Rotary is leading the effort to eliminate the poliovirus worldwide, we are keeping this issue in the public eye. We are so close now to ridding the world of this crippling disease that we must stay focused until the job is finished.