Rotary International has contributed more than $600 million to "one of the most successful public health initiatives in history" -- the effort to eradicate polio worldwide -- and now should focus on combating the HIV/AIDS pandemic, Andre Picard, a columnist for Toronto's Globe and Mail, writes in a Globe and Mail opinion piece. The lessons learned in the polio eradication campaign, which is now "tantalizingly close" to wiping out the disease worldwide, can be "applied again and again when fighting other diseases," Picard writes. "With the defeat of polio in our grasp," the "smart money" is on Rotary International moving on to fight HIV/AIDS, which would be a "fitting centenary challenge for Rotarians," Picard says, adding that the group is "certainly up for the challenge" (Picard, Globe and Mail, 5/26).

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