GERMANY —The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced a US$1.2 billion commitment to aid in the global effort to eradicate polio.
The disease is endemic in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and recent outbreaks have occurred in New York, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere.
The pledge was made by the foundation at the World Health Summit in Berlin. The funds will be used to support the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), which is the driving force behind the Polio Eradication Strategy 2022-2026.
According to the Gates Foundation, polio eradication is a top priority. The Foundation has already contributed nearly US$5 billion to GPEI.
It has also contributed technical resources, as well as targeted vaccination campaigns and routine immunizations, to help prevent the virus’s spread.
The foundation has also contributed funds to vaccine research and emergency operations centers in Nigeria, Pakistan, and Afghanistan in order to prevent polio from becoming an epidemic and eradicate the virus. It has also improved polio surveillance and outbreak response.
Polio can result in permanent paralysis and death. The highly contagious virus spreads through direct contact with droplets from an infected person’s sneeze, cough, or stool.
The GPEI is requesting US$4.8 billion in funding, which would cover the vaccinations of 370 million children each year as well as improve other healthcare services.
“Polio workers have been especially vital in responding to COVID-19 and reaching communities about the importance of vaccination against preventable diseases,” said Melinda French Gates, the foundation’s other co-chair.
GPEI was founded in 1988, when polio was discovered in over 125 countries and paralyzed 350,000 people each year, the majority of whom were children.
Since then, GPEI has been credited with reducing polio cases by more than 99%. According to the Gates Foundation, reasons for continued spread include “interruptions in routine immunization, vaccine misinformation, political unrest, and the tragic floods in Pakistan in 2022.”
There have also been rising concerns with new detections of the virus in various other locations. Recently, New York has been making efforts to vaccinate locals since the detection of the virus in wastewater samples.
Another concern is countries that had previously eliminated all forms of poliovirus have recently reported new detections of the virus. Malawi and Mozambique each detected cases of wild polio that originated abroad in 2022.
GPEI’s efforts include deepening relationships with communities, supporting governments in responding to outbreaks, and helping advance the rollout of a next-generation polio vaccine.
The foundation stated that if it doesn’t completely eradicate polio, there could be a resurgence of 200,000 new cases annually.
The GPEI previously created its Polio Endgame strategy for eradicating and containing polio, to create a world free of the virus.
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