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New polio eradication plan announced
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The Global Polio Eradication Initiative recently announced a 6-year plan to eradicate all types of polio disease simultaneously by 2018.
“After millennia battling polio, this plan puts us within sight of the endgame,” WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, MD, MPH, said in a press release. “We have new knowledge about the polioviruses, new technologies and new tactics to reach the most vulnerable communities. The extensive experience, infrastructure and knowledge gained from ending polio can help us reach all children and all communities with essential health services.”
Margaret Chan
The Polio Eradication and Endgame Strategic Plan 2013-2018 was developed by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) and incorporates lessons learned from India’s success in becoming polio-free in 2012 and knowledge about the risk of circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses. There were just 223 cases of polio in 2012 and only 19 so far in 2013, according to the press release.
The plan addresses the challenges of vaccinating children and lays out a process for planning how to transition the GPEI’s resources and lessons so they continue to be of service to other public health efforts.
“Ending polio will not only be a historic feat for humanity, but also a huge part of our efforts to reach every hard-to-reach child with a range of life-saving vaccines,” said Anthony Lake, PhD, executive director of UNICEF.
A number of pledges to support the initiative have led to an additional $335 million toward the plan’s 6-year budget. The plan’s $5.5 billion budget over 6 years requires sustaining current spending to eradicate polio. The new plan’s budget includes the cost of reaching and vaccinating more than 250 million children multiple times every year, monitoring and surveillance in more than 70 countries, and securing the infrastructure to benefit other health and development programs.
“Today we have the fewest cases in the fewest places ever, making it critical to use the best opportunity the world has ever had to put an end to this terrible, preventable disease,” Anne Schuchat, MD, head of the Center for Global Health at the CDC, said in the press release.