On 17 January, district governors-elect filled the plenary hall at the International Assembly in San Diego, California, USA, and anxiously awaited an announcement on Rotary’s progress to eradicate polio.The lights dimmed and a map was revealed. This showed a 99 percent decrease in polio cases throughout the world and that Rotary’s battle to wipe out the disease had reached a historic turning point.

The state of West Bengal in eastern India presented many problems to polio eradicators. The poliovirus was imported into one of the northern districts in January 2010 and was still circulating the following December, with eight confirmed wild polio cases. Even with monthly immunization campaigns, reaching every child to stop the virus from circulating proved difficult.