Rural India polio vaccine given by Ladner Rotarians
As part of National Immunization Day aimed at vaccinating over 172 million children under the age of 5 across India, Ladner Rotarians Chris and Penny Offer, both Past District Governors, joined a Rotary International team of volunteers from Canada, Switzerland, Australia and the United States to give Polio vaccinations in rural India in late February.
Siblings look on as a baby receives polio vaccine drops
from Ladner Rotarian Penny Offer
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Chris Offer gives polio vaccine drops to a young child
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Chris says how amazing it is that, “Just two drops and we can protect children from polio.”
Polio is a life-threatening and crippling virus, which largely attacks children under the age of five years of age. It invades the nervous system and can cause irreversible paralysis in a matter of hours. There is no cure for it but it can be prevented. Polio vaccine, given multiple times, almost always protects a child for life.
Rotarian team approaches the polio vaccination clinic in the
rural, largely Muslim village of Nuh, Haryana, India
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Eradication efforts in Pakistan have been hit by opposition from militants and attacks on immunization teams that have claimed 71 lives since December 2012.