VALDOSTA — Today is World Polio Day as Rotary Clubs around the world kick off a $200 million campaign to complete the eradication of polio, announced Dr. Dennis Marks, president of Valdosta Rotary Club.

“The Valdosta Rotary Club’s goal is $2,000, to be combined with other clubs to reach the goal of $200 million, to which The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will add $355 million,” Marks said at Wednesday’s meeting. “With this money, we will wipe out polio by 2012.”

Rotary International is celebrating a major milestone reached in this global fund-raising campaign to eradicate polio — nearly $100 million raised of the $200 million challenge.

“Because of Rotary’s more than 20-year effort in the eradication of polio, we are almost there,” said Dr. Greg Martin, chair of this fund-raising campaign. “Only four countries remain, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, and Nigeria.”

Since 1985, eradicating polio worldwide has been Rotary’s top philanthropic goal. Rotary has already contributed more than $800 million and countless volunteer hours in the protection of more than 2 billion children in 122 countries.

But in the remaining four countries, polio continues to infect and paralyze children, robbing them of the few opportunities available to them. The funding will provide the distribution of a new, more effective bivalent polio vaccine that was recently approved for use in the coming months in these countries still battling the disease.

A highly infectious disease, polio is sometimes fatal. As there is no cure, the best protection is prevention. For as little as 60 cents worth of vaccine, a child can be protected for life. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is spearheaded by the World Health Organization, Rotary International, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the United Nations Children’s Fund.

To contribute to the eradication of polio, checks may be sent to the Valdosta Rotary Club at P.O. Box 517, Valdosta, Ga., 31603. For further information and photographs of vaccinations, visit, www.rotary.org/endpolio.