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| Global community commits $630m for aggressive push |
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Friday, January 23, 2009
by Our correspondent
Islamabad
Rotary International, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the British and German governments have committed more than $630 million in new funds to fight polio, a crippling disease that paralyses children. In addition to pledging needed funds, leaders have urged additional donors and leaders of countries where polio still exists to join them in aggressive push for eradication.
The Gates Foundation is awarding a $255 million challenge grant to Rotary, which Rotary will match with $100 million raised by its members over the next three years. At the same time, the United Kingdom is giving an additional $150 million (£100 million) and Germany is giving an additional $130 million (Ä 100 million), both to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). Contributions from the UK and Germany over the next five years will not count toward Rotary’s match of the Gates Foundation challenge grant.
The shared commitment of the global health should encourage governments and nongovernmental organisations to ensure that resources and the will of the world are available to end polio once and for all. The pledge is expected to massively boost the battle to rid the world of the scourge of polio.
The polio eradication initiative faces an ongoing funding shortfall that must be closed if eradication is to be achieved. With these new investments, along with contributions received from Canada, Russia, the United States and other donors, the shortfall for 2009-10 is $340 million. The new funding from Germany will further reduce the gap.
Polio has been completely eliminated in the Americas, the Western Pacific and Europe, but the wild poliovirus persists in Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan, and imported cases from these countries threaten other developing nations. It is in these four countries that the most serious challenges exist, including vaccine effectiveness (India), low vaccination coverage rates (Nigeria), and access problems due to conflict (Afghanistan and Pakistan). Much depends on the countries themselves. Recent progress in key areas has shown that these challenges can be overcome with sufficient national and sub-national commitment.
Launched in 1988, GPEI has reduced the number of polio cases by 99 percent over the past two decades, from more than 350,000 cases in 1988 to an estimated 1,600 in 2008.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
