Global Polio Eradication Initiative
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The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is an initiative created in 1988, just after the
World Health Assembly The World Health Assembly (WHA) is the forum through which the World Health Organization (WHO) is governed by its 194 member states. It is the world's highest health policy setting body and is composed of health ministers from member states. T ...
resolved to eradicate the disease poliomyelitis. Led by the
World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...
, it is the largest international public health initiative in history.


History

In 1987
Rotary International Rotary International is one of the largest service organizations in the world. Its stated mission is to "provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through hefellowship of business, prof ...
began a campaign to raise U.S. $100 million by its 100th anniversary, for the purpose of dealing with global polio. The following year, the
World Health Assembly The World Health Assembly (WHA) is the forum through which the World Health Organization (WHO) is governed by its 194 member states. It is the world's highest health policy setting body and is composed of health ministers from member states. T ...
voted for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. At the time, there were 125 countries with endemic polio. Efforts were built upon those used to control wild poliovirus in the Americas in the early 1980s, and on lessons from
smallpox eradication Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) cer ...
. Its first coordinator was Nick Ward."Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication"
Fifteenth meeting of the European Regional Certification Commission Copenhagen, 19–21 June 2002, p. 25


Strategy and structure

The strategy for the eradication of polio rests on immunising every at-risk child until there is no one left for the disease to transmit to, and the disease eventually dies out. The initiative is spearheaded by the following organisations in the form of
multistakeholder governance Multistakeholder governance is a practice of governance that employs bringing multiple stakeholders together to participate in dialogue, decision making, and implementation of responses to jointly perceived problems. The principle behind such a st ...
: * WHO (
World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...
), who are responsible for planning, technical direction, surveillance and eradication certification * Rotary International, whose responsibilities include fundraising, advocacy, and volunteer recruitment * The
CDC The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the National public health institutes, national public health agency of the United States. It is a Federal agencies of the United States, United States federal agency, under the United S ...
, who are in charge of deploying scientists and public health experts to WHO and UNICEF *
UNICEF UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...
is in charge of the distribution of the vaccine and helping countries develop communication and awareness strategies. *
The Gates Foundation The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), a merging of the William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Learning Foundation, is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was l ...
provided a large portion of the funding. Key tactics used by the GPEI include strengthening childhood immunisation through oral vaccines, conducting surveillance through investigation of
acute flaccid paralysis Flaccid paralysis is a neurological condition characterized by weakness or paralysis and reduced muscle tone without other obvious cause (e.g., trauma). This abnormal condition may be caused by disease or by trauma affecting the nerves associate ...
cases among children under 15 years old (in order to determine areas where the virus is truly eradicated), and conducting "mop up" campaigns in areas where cases of polio have been identified.


Funding

At the peak of its work, the programme directly employed 4000 people across 75 countries and managed a budget of nearly U.S. $1 billion. , the GPEI had raised 18 billion dollars in funding, with annual contributions around 800 million to 1 billion dollars. Around 30% of the funding came from the
Gates Foundation The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), a merging of the William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Learning Foundation, is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was l ...
30% from developed governments, 27% from countries at risk of polio, and the rest was made up of donations from nonprofits, private funders, and other foundations.


Evaluation

In 1995 the
Global Certification Commission The World Health Organization (WHO) created the Global Commission for the Certification of the Eradication of Poliomyelitis (commonly known as the Global Certification Commission or GCC) in 1995 to independently verify the eradication of wild p ...
was created to oversee the certification of the eradication of wild-type poliovirus transmissions. Certification for the six WHO regions requires all of the countries in that region to be certified by the commission. By 2000, both the regions of the Western Pacific and the Americas met the criteria to be certified free of polio transmissions. By 2012 the initial number of estimated cases in 1988 of 350,000 across 125 endemic countries had dropped to 650 confirmed cases. , five of the six WHO regions are now certified polio-eradicated (Europe, the Americas, Africa, South-East Asian, and Western Pacific Region).
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
was certified polio-free in 2014, and Africa was declared polio free in 2020. The only countries with endemic polio were
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
and
Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
.


See also

*
Eradication of infectious diseases Eradication is the reduction of an infectious disease's prevalence in the global host population to zero. Two infectious diseases have successfully been eradicated: smallpox in humans, and rinderpest in ruminants. There are four ongoing progra ...
* ''
The Final Inch ''The Final Inch'' is a short documentary about the effort to eradicate polio. It was directed by Irene Taylor Brodsky and focuses on health workers on the front lines of the fight to eliminate the disease. It was filmed on location in Afghanista ...
'', a short documentary about the effort to eradicate polio *
List of diseases eliminated from the United States This is a list of diseases known (or declared) to have been Eradication of infectious diseases, eliminated from the United States, either permanently or at one time. ("Elimination" is the preferred term for "regional eradication" of a disease; the ...


References


External links

* {{Eradication of infectious disease, state=collapsed International medical and health organizations Polio