Local Rotary clubs teach history of polio with traveling exhibit at McHenry Co. Fair

RILEE (Rotary Iron Lung Education Exhibit) was on display at the McHenry County Fair Aug. 2-7. The exhibit is designed to help people understand the history of polio and that it is still here.

Polio was the one of the most feared disease in the U.S. and the world in the 1940s and '50s. The McHenry County Coalition of Rotary Clubs sponsored the exhibit to give information to fair visitors.

As of August 2022, the only cases of the wild polio virus reported worldwide for this year were: 14 in Pakistan, one in Afghanistan and five in Mozambique.

Polio, or poliomyelitis, is a paralyzing and potentially deadly infectious disease that most commonly affects children under the age of 5. The virus spreads from person to person, typically through contaminated water. It can then attack the nervous system. If it is not eliminated everywhere in the world, it will return.

One fair visitor, looking at the length of an iron long, couldn't imagine folding himself inside. Most visitors talked about their families and friends who had shared their experiences with polio.

Overall, many people were surprised to learn that polio is still in some countries and that a case of paralytic polio was diagnosed in a young adult in Rockland County, New York this past July.

This is why Rotarians donate millions of dollars each year through the Rotary Foundation to eradicate this terrible and debilitating disease. Rotary has been working to eradicate polio for more than 35 years. As a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, they have reduced polio cases by 99.9 percent since the first project to vaccinate children in the Philippines in 1979.

Learn more about the foundation and its polio eradication program at Rotary.org.