An international effort to wipe out polio once and for all returns to Knoxville on Wednesday, October 24th, as the Rotary Club of Knoxville holds its annual fundraising dinner for the End Polio Now project.

Rotary International has worked for over 30 years to provide polio vaccine around the world; but even though it’s been eliminated in 99 percent of the world, a few cases still develop each year.

T. Waldmann-Williams is Co-President of the Knoxville Rotary Club; she tells KNIA/KRLS News the push has been on for years to eliminate the disease once and for all in the handful of countries where it remains.

“And those countries are Pakistan and Afghanistan, where we’ve had 17 cases acknowledged this year thus far; and Nigeria, which is almost three years free of polio,” Waldmann-Williams says. “If we don’t eradicate this by around 2024, we could see a resurgence of 200,000 cases a year.”

Polio can only be prevented through vaccination, and if an outbreak ever recurs it would only take one person getting on an airplane to cause it to spread further.

The End Polio Now dinner will be on Wednesday, October 24th from 5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum; tickets are $30 each, and the event is open to the general public.

You can find out more about this event on today’s edition of Let’s Talk Knoxville.