PolioPlus Precursors

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We all know that it was in 1985 that Rotary International launched the PolioPlus program.

However, many years earlier, Rotary-Clubs had taken initiatives to fight against this terrible disease.

Thus, in 1915, the Rotary-Club of Toledo, Ohio, USA, was the first to invest in this field.

In 1937, Porter LORING, member of the Rotary-club of San Antonio, Texas, USA, had offered an iron lung worth $2,400 and had been named ” Friend of Humanity”.

In 1945, members of the Rotary Club of Deming, New Mexico, USA, donated an $1,800 iron lung to the local hospital.

Then, in 1950, the Rotarians of Stoneham, Massachusetts, USA, offered a portable steel lung.

These few actions identified are probably not the only ones and testify to the fact that Rotary International’s efforts to fight polio began more than a century