JACKSON, Miss. — A polio like disease has shown up in California kids over the past year. While there appear to be no signs of it in Mississippi, one group thinks you should still be very concerned.
“We have three countries still that are epidemic in polio viruses,” explained Mississippi Rotary District 6820 District Governor Rob Smith.” He said that means your child could be at risk. “Because of the fact that you know that there is a possibility that we could have an outbreak just by one airplane flight coming from an infected country.”
Polio, or Poliomyelitis, is a highly infectious viral disease of the brain and spinal cord that can cause disability or death. There is no cure, and prevention depends on vaccination. “So we as Rotarians just want to try to get as much of the drops in the children to try to prevent that disease from being an epidemic,” Smith said.
The last reported case of polio in the U.S. was in 1979. The Rotary Club continues to raise millions of dollars each year to try to eradicate the disease from throughout the world.
