March 17, 2020:

It was just four short years ago when the world stared down the Ebola outbreak, a nightmare virus, unimaginably cruel and ultimately deadly to its victims. 

In Nigeria, the epicenter of the outbreak, the government of Nigeria turned to Rotary International to assist in stopping Ebola in its tracks. Rotary International's polio surveillance network–the network used to monitor cases for polio–was deployed to identify and track suspected Ebola cases and contributed to a successful response to this terrifying disease. 

In 1987, Rotary International committed to undertaking the herculean task of eradicating polio from the human condition. In that year, there were estimated to be some 250,000 cases of polio worldwide. Working hand-in-hand with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Health Organization, Rotary International is this close to relegating polio to the history books–only the second time in human history that a disease has been completely eliminated (the last case of smallpox was reported in Somalia in 1977). In 2019, there were just 94 reported cases of polio (but that was up from 33 the year prior).
 

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At the grassroots level, Rotarians–people like you and me–are mobilized on the ground to prevent the spread of major diseases, Ebola included. The Rotary Club of Monrovia, for one example, works directly with the Liberian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to provide support for Ebola patients, health workers and other support personnel. Rotary provides supplies, transportation, tracks potential cases and works to reverse the stigma and reintegrate recovering patients into their communities.

Rotary uses its network to reach out to Rotary members–1.2 million people  in 35,000 clubs–across the globe to determine how we can make our response abilities stronger. Rotary maintains a working group to review findings, improve efforts and increase outreach.

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But polio and Ebola are not the only killers out there: The nature of infectious disease is such that new ones arise all the time. The nature of the global travel is such that a disease can shrink the world down to the size of a virus.

As U.S. government funds are diverted away from pandemic prevention, private efforts are perhaps all that is standing in the way of the next deadly virus spreading around the world. A brand new infectious respiratory disease, COVID–19, at the time of this post, has infected an estimated 80,000 people, is responsible for close to 2,500 deaths and has spread to 25 countries in less than two months. COVID–19 is already responsible for a 5% slowdown in economic growth and plummets in stock markets worldwide. Dozens of cities remain in absolute lockdown and factories are shuttered. The nation of Italy has, for most intents and purposes, shut down. Spain looks to be next. Global businesses like Apple and Nissan are suffering from disrupted supply chains. Quick containment of COVID–19, beyond the very human reality, is needed to stabilize the world economy. Preventing infectious disease around the world is a cornerstone of the Rotary mission. We have a track record of millions of infections prevented and are preventing more every day.

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