World-wide polio eradication to be discussed at Lunch with League on Tuesday

Brenda Thornburgh, president of Galbraith Laboratories Inc. and past President of Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary Club, will discuss the worldwide effort to eradicate polio during Lunch with the League on Tuesday.

The meeting starts at noon in the Social Hall of the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church on Oak Ridge Turnpike.

For most Americans, paralytic polio is a disease of the past, a press release said. However, there has been a worldwide increase in the number of confirmed cases across the world in 2013, primarily in non-endemic countries such as Somalia, Kenya, and the Syrian Arab Republic.

“The key to polio eradication is childhood immunization,” the release said. In areas of political instability, humanitarian vaccination missions may be blocked and workers lives endangered. Thornburgh will address new developments, both good and bad, in the battle against polio. She will share her experience as part of a polio immunization team that immunized children in the slums and rural area of Delhi and Calcutta.

Sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge, Lunch with the League is open to the public. There is no cost to attend, and reservations are not needed.  Box lunches will be available starting at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday on a first-come, first-served basis for $8, or you may bring your own. Coffee and tea are provided.

Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church is located at 1500 Oak Ridge Turnpike (traffic light #11).

The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan organization that encourages informed and active participation in government and works to increase understanding of public policy through unbiased studies of public issues. Membership is open to both men and women. For more information, visit lwvoakridge.org.