We will hear from
Steve Stay about the
Rise Garden (a project of Switchpoint)
Next week:
The Evening of Elegance Committee will be talking with us about what we, the members, can do to help put together the
Upcoming events:
RYLA will be held at Aspen Grove September
21-24. RYLA is for high school sophomores and juniors and has truly changed lives. If you know of a potential attendee, please see Derrick Loyola or Gregg Grajek ASAP!
The Evening of Elegance is coming up fast! Mark you calendars now for September 24th at the Hilton Garden Inn. The plans are coming together really well, this promises to be an excellent event.
Please thank our gold sponsors:
Paramount Tax and Accounting
and
Infinite Solutions for their support.
Registration is open, just go to the Club Website.
Our district will celebrate World Polio Day on Saturday October 15th. District Governor, Jose will be hosting a live stream broadcast from Park City and encourages all to participate!
And, on a VERY LOCAL level, Sandi Schwartz will again be taking her
Ride to Nowhere!
Sandi will ride her Peloton bike 100 miles to raise funds for polio eradication. So critical right now!
will be here before you know it! Mark your calendars now for October 28th and 29th. Dave H. will be providing more information on volunteering etc. as we get closer.
Upcoming meetings:
The next meeting of the Evening of Elegance Committee will be August 24th, at Bloomington at 5:30.
The Board will meet next on Thursday, September 1st at Bloomington at 5:30
The Service Committee will be meeting on September 6th at Sandi's home.
Upcoming Opportunities for Service Above Self.
The monthly food drive will take place on August 24th (the Bagging and boxing at the Food Bank), 25th (distribution in Washington City) and 26th (distribution in St. George.
The Rotary Reading Program, established last year in the Washington County School District, was a great hit. So much so that we have been invited to return this year. They would like to have volunteers in place by the second week of September. This is a very rewarding project so if this is your thing, please see Sandi or Richelle right away for more details.
There will be an orientation held with Kathy Hall of the Washington County School district for those who might have an interest in the reading program immediately after the meeting this week. No commitment required if you would like to learn more, please plan to stay after our breakfast meeting to meet with the readers and Kathy.
Richard S. will lead a group of dedicated road cleaners (that would be us) on a trek to clean up our section of Dixie Drive.
This will take place on October 1st. Richard will provide details and e-mail and invitation s we get closer.
As you are aware, our Club sponsored the Rotary Satellite Club of Southern Utah Veterans.
We are happy to see members of their club joining us from time to time and hope perhaps some of you would like to attend a meeting with them.
They meet the 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month at 6 pm at the Elks Lodge.
Thanks Veterans Club for your service!
WILD POLIO VIRUS, TYPE 1 (WPV1) - There were no new cases of
WPV1 reported this last week, so the count remains at 19 for the year.
FORTY-ONE - The number of days since the last case of WPV1 occurred in Pakistan (June 30th).
SIXTY-ONE — The number of days since the last case of WPV1 occurred in Mozambique (June 10th).
TWO HUNDRED AND EIGHT (6 MONTHS +) The number of days since the last case of WPV1 occurred in Afghanistan (January 14th).
TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FOUR - (8 MONTHS +) - The number of days since the last case of WPV1 occurred in Malawi (November 19th, 2021).
NINETEEN - The total number of cases of WPV1 that has occurred in 2022 year- to-date (1 in Afghanistan, 4 in Mozambique and 14 in Pakistan).
SIX - The total number of cases of WPV1 that occurred in 2021 (1 in Pakistan, 1 in Malawi and 4 in Afghanistan).
ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY - The total number of cases of WPV1 that occurred in 2020.
ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-SIX - The total number of cases of WPV1 that occurred in 2019.
There were however, 8 New Wild Positive Environmental Samples (ES’s) reported this last week, 7 in Pakistan and 1 in Afghanistan. Of particular concern is of the 7 collected samples in Pakistan, only 4 were from the same area (khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province) as the 14 cases of WPV1 reported earlier in the year. The other 3 were located to the south, 2 from Punjab and 1 from Islamabad, suggesting possible spread of the virus (my personal speculation, not an official opinion). This brings the total, year to date, to 15 Positive Environmental Samples, 13 in Pakistan and 2 in Afghanistan.
CIRCULATING VACCINE-DERIVED POLIO - On our other battlefront in the war on polio, the circulating Vaccine-Derived Polio, there was a large number of new cases...36 vs. zero cases the week before. The bulk of them occurred in Yemen, reporting 26 cases of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2). Almost two-thirds of the areas in Yemen reporting the bulk of cVDPV2 cases have not implemented type 2-containing polio vaccination campaigns, underscoring the risk both to local children and to neighboring countries, and is cause for great concern. Intensive efforts are ongoing to access Yemen’s northern governorates with the polio vaccine. Their year to date total stands at 80 vs. 69 cases in all of last year.
Another area of concern are the 9 cVDPV2 cases reported in DR Congo, bringing their total to 73 so far in 2022. Last year there were only 28 cases total.
And the last case was in Mozambique and was a circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type1, making it their second case of the year.
And finally, there were 11 Positive Environmental Samples (ES) of vaccine derived polio reported last week, 7 which were collected in Madagascar, 3 in Algeria and 1 in Ghana. Of note is the fact that all of the Madagascar samples were of the Type 1 (cVDPV1), and that they were collected in communities from one end of the island nation to the other vs just one local area, just like the positive samples collected the week before last.
UPDATE ON THE CASE OF cVDPV2 REPORTED IN ROCKLAND COUNTY, NEW YORK - In an August 12th article in the Washington Post, it was reported by health officials in New York that the polio virus has been found not only in Rockland and Orange Counties, just north of New York City, but in New York City’s wastewater as well, extending the known presence of the virus from the region’s northern suburbs to the nation’s largest city. City and state health departments offered no details of where or when the virus was discovered. But they said the finding suggests “likely local circulation of the virus.”
“The risk to New Yorkers is real but the defense is so simple — get vaccinated against polio,” city Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan said in a news release. “With polio circulating in our communities, there is simply nothing more essential than vaccinating our children to protect them from this virus, and if you’re an unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated adult, please choose now to get the vaccine. Polio is entirely preventable and its reappearance should be a call to action for all of us.” Three doses of the polio vaccine provide at least 99%
protection, according to the CDC. In New York City, 86.2% of children between the ages of 6 months and 5 years old have received three doses of polio vaccine. Of particular concern, the news release said, are neighborhoods where child vaccination coverage is less than 70 percent. The last naturally occurring cases of polio in the US were recorded in 1979.
Meanwhile, officials in London announced Wednesday that they are offering polio booster vaccines to children ages 1 to 9 after traces of polio virus were found in the British capital’s wastewater in June. The U.K. Health Security Agency said Wednesday that the vaccination program will start in areas where traces of the virus have been detected and immunization rates are low.
The June discovery prompted the United Kingdom to declare a rare “national incident.” No cases have been reported. The United Kingdom was declared polio-free by the World Health Organization in 2003.
*Note: our community has an endless number of absolutely critical needs and needs help from our citizens. However, as a Rotary Club we cannot be all things to all people. So only those service opportunities approved by the Board will be listed in this bulletin. If you have project you wish our members to support, please submit your request to President Dave prior to the Board Meeting each month. Thank you!