The Gates Foundation, Rotary International and the governments of the United Kingdom and Germany pledged a combined $640 million last week to help eradicate polio, an effort that has cost the global health community more than $6 billion since 1988.
International efforts to eliminate polio health have succeeded in reducing the number of cases almost entirely from about 350,000 cases in 1988 to about 1,600 in 2008.
At this point, the virus has been largely isolated to certain regions in Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan, where issues relating to accessibility, safety, local cooperation and vaccine efficacy have dogged the final eradication efforts causing recent outbreaks and threatening to spread the virus to surrounding polio-free countries.
Bill Gates, whose foundation committed $255 million of the $640 million, said that he believes, "Innovation will knock out polio in those few remaining, very stubborn pockets."
The World Health Organization (WHO) says that the donations will “go a long way” toward ensuring that its five-year plan is “systematically applied,” said Oliver Rosenbauer, WHO's communications officer for polio eradication.
“Each of the remaining endemic countries presents unique challenges,” said Dr. David Heymann, WHO's assistant director-general for health security and environment and representative of the director-general for polio eradication.
Still, both Rotary and WHO view the generosity of the recent donations as votes of confidence in their ability to finish the job. For Rotary, now “the biggest challenge is getting that last one percent—the final one percent is the most difficult,” said Petina Dixon, lead media relations specialist: PolioPlus. “Now we have to motivate our members and raise the funds,” added Dixon.
For the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), “The most important step is to reach every child during every round of immunization to get to zero polio cases quickly. Understanding why children are missed is critical,” said Ellyn Ogden, polio eradication coordinator with USAID.
“It’s not just a matter of bringing the vaccine to the child anymore,” added Ogden. She stressed the need for more “innovative, on-the-ground problem solving” in the endemic countries with an emphasis on communication, interpersonal skills and cultural understanding.
“It’s true, the challenges are real, the costs are high and the risks are many but the alternatives are much worse,” said Ogden.
- Sean Smith (se.smith@elsevier.com)
