(NAPSI)—When it comes to combating polio, there’s good news, bad news and better news.
The good news is that efforts to eradicate the dreaded disease have been going on for decades. Back in the disease’s peak years in the 1940s and 50s, it affected between 13,000 and 20,000 people in the United States each year, many of them children. Thousands died. Many others were permanently paralyzed. Then Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin developed vaccines and the number of cases dropped. As of August 30, 2023, only seven cases of “wild polio virus” (two in Pakistan, five in Afghanistan) have been detected in 2023.
The bad news is that even one case of polio is one too many, and while cases of polio have fallen over 99% worldwide since 1988, a variant of the polio virus is causing outbreaks and consuming critical resources needed to stop the transmission of wild poliovirus. What’s more, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted efforts to combat vaccine-preventable diseases, including polio. Continue reading
New Tools Help Teachers Improve Student Literacy
The Problem
The National Assessment of Educational Progress, an organization that measures academic performance of students from across the country, has long term data that shows 9-year-old students scored, on average, five points lower in reading in 2022 than did their pre-pandemic peers in 2020. The declines represent the largest drops in decades.
Fortunately, educators don’t have to combat this issue alone. As part of the Discover Literacy education program, the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, National Afterschool Association and Discovery Education created five short, animated videos to help teachers and other school professionals master best practices for literacy instruction. Continue reading
FROM THE ATTORNEY GENERAL MOODY’S OFFICE:
We officially launched the 2023 Human Trafficking Summit. Our summit brings together survivors, law enforcement, prosecutors, victim advocates, community leaders and concerned citizens who are committed to working together to stop this crime.
John Walsh, television host and co-founder of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, is our keynote speaker for this year’s summit. As a nationally renowned crime fighter, victim advocate and host of the former hit television show America’s Most Wanted, Walsh has spent decades helping law enforcement locate missing children and solve crimes, including the recovery of more than 400,000 children. I am excited for our attendees to hear Walsh’s inspirational message about what we can do to fight back against criminals preying on vulnerable populations.
The summit has nine sessions covering subjects like how the opioid crisis is fueling human trafficking to supporting trafficking survivors in the workplace. Attendees will have access to 11 hours of educational content from leaders in the fight to end human trafficking. There is expert training available for law enforcement about proper ways to document and gather evidence and we also cover important information on how to work with victims so they can recover and heal as survivors. Continue reading
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