At minus 26°C, with the sun already below the horizon, Dr Minh-Ly Pham – a former WHO colleague now serving as medical officer aboard a polar research vessel – marked World Polio Day in her Rotary End Polio T-shirt. Her message: “May we soon have no further need for a World Polio Day, only a Polio Eradication Day!”
A week after Member States at the WHO Regional Committee reaffirmed polio eradication as a regional priority, WHO's Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office joined Rotary members in Cairo to mark World Polio Day. At the End Polio Now Carnival, Dr Jamal Ahmed called for a new approach to reach the last children still missed.
Rotary members, diplomats, global health partners and polio survivors gathered at WHO headquarters to reaffirm their commitment to polio eradication and the final stretch to a polio-free world.
Under the theme “Shukriya Polio Frontline Workers”, Pakistan's Polio Eradication Initiative honoured the more than 400 000 health workers – over 60% of them women – who reach children door to door. Celebrations also looked back to 1994 and the launch of the national programme.
Rotary UK marked World Polio Day, bringing together parliamentarians, diplomats and Rotary representatives to call for renewed global cooperation and the sustained political commitment needed to finish the job.
Brussels' famous Manneken Pis joined the campaign, dressed in his own End Polio Now outfit. The Mayor of Brussels opened the event, and Dr Oxana Domenti, WHO Representative to the European Union, thanked Rotary for more than four decades of partnership.
Female athletes underscored their commitment to end polio during a celebration in Somalia for World Polio Day 2026.
At Rotary Germany's World Polio Day celebration in Essen, Rotary members joined a walk-a-thon to close the #TeamEndPolio Strava Challenge. Across the challenge, more than 100,000 people logged 150 million minutes of movement to help protect children from polio.
At Menagesha Rehabilitation Center, officials and communities came together under the theme “One Day, One Focus: Ending Polio for Good.” As part of the celebrations, WHO Ethiopia gifted wheelchairs to help children and adults with disabilities move more freely, live more independently and reach rehabilitation services.
