The Rotary Club of Norwich has donated 2,000 purple crocus corms to the John Innes Centre to mark World Polio Day (24 October).
Professor George Lomonosoff, a JIC group leader and a Rotarian, and Anna Cottrell, President of the Rotary Club of Norwich, led planting at Church Farm, Bawburgh, the JIC's field experimentation station.
"Thanks to the Rotary Club of Norwich, visitors to our site in Bawburgh will be greeted next spring with a flourishing bank of purple petals. It's a beautiful welcome and a reminder of the important work being done by Rotary, the John Innes Centre and others to finally eradicate the ancient scourge of polio," said Professor Lomonossoff.
The purple crocus is a symbol of the Rotary Worldwide Polio Eradication project, referencing the practice in which an immunised child is given a purple ink mark on their finger in some campaigns.
Professor Lomonossoff is part of an international research consortium funded by the World Health Organisation that has produced next generation vaccines needed to take the last step of eradicating polio.
The wild virus is endemic only in isolated pockets of Afghanistan and Pakistan. In recent years outbreaks have tended to develop in disaster-struck or war zones, such as in Syria in 2012, and more recently in Gaza. The increase in the number of polio cases when vaccination programmes are disrupted highlights the need for continuing vigilance.
