You may not realize it, but by buying my book, The Unexpected Perspective, you're helping a worldwide coalition complete the eradication of a terrible disease – polio. The monumental task of ridding the world of this terrible disease is nearly complete, and when the job is finished it will be only the second major disease ever eradicated, the first being smallpox in 1979.
Only 30 years ago, polio was truly a worldwide scourge. Every year, there were about 350,000 new cases of polio reported, and polio was endemic in 125 countries around the world. The leadership of Rotary, an organization of which I'm proud to be a part, was the first to envision the possibility and potential of a polio-free world. For the past 30 years, a coalition that includes Rotary, the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and UNICEF has been fighting this terrible disease. More recently, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has joined the effort. To learn more about this partnership, go to http://polioeradication.org/who-we-are/partners/. Today, polio remains endemic in only 3 countries – Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria - and fewer than 30 cases have been reported worldwide in 2016 through mid-October. While the eradication task is nearly complete, nothing short of complete eradication will keep this dreaded disease from re-emerging on a worldwide scale.
How does a purchase of my book help this effort? For each book sold, I'm personally contributing $ 4.00 US to the Rotary Foundation. Each dollar that I contribute is being generously matched on a 2:1 basis by the Gates Foundation, meaning that a single book purchase will turn into a $ 12.00 contribution. That's more than the cost of the electronic version of the book, and nearly the cost of a softcover version. It costs sixty cents to immunize a child against polio, so each book sale means that 20 children can be immunized against the ravages of polio.
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative hopes to record the last case of polio sometime before the end of 2017. The World Health Organization will certify the world to be polio free once three years time elapses without a single case of polio reported worldwide.
Once polio has been eliminated, there will be two tremendous benefits. First, no child or adult will ever suffer the ravages of polio again. Second, eradication will produce a "polio dividend." Right now, the world spends more than a billion US dollars every year on fighting and preventing polio. Once the disease is eliminated, that money can be redirected towards other diseases. This won't be a single year phenomenon, it will re-occur every year in the future.
Polio has been a scourge for mankind for thousands of years. Thanks to the work of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, as well as the governments of every country in the world, we truly are on the verge of polio eradication.
If you would like to learn more about this incredible initiative, please visit http://www.polioeradication.org.
