The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) yesterday presented a comprehensive six-year plan, the first plan to eradicate all types of polio disease – both wild poliovirus and vaccine-derived cases – simultaneously.
Global leaders and individual philanthropists signalled their confidence in the plan by pledging close to three-quarters of the plan’s projected $5,5-billion cost over six years. They also called upon additional donors to commit up front the additional $1,5-billion needed to ensure eradication.
The new plan capitalises on the best opportunity to eradicate polio, with the number of children paralysed by this disease at the lowest level ever: just 223 cases in 2012 and only 19 so far this year. The urgency is linked to the tremendous advances made in 2012 and the narrow window of opportunity to seize on that progress and stop all poliovirus transmission before polio-free countries become re-infected.
“After millennia battling polio, this plan puts us within sight of the endgame. 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,” says World Health Organisation director-general Margaret Chan.
The Polio Eradication & Endgame Strategic Plan 2013-2018 was developed by the GPEI in extensive consultation with a broad range of stakeholders.
The plan incorporates the lessons learned from India’s success becoming polio-free in early 2012 and cutting-edge knowledge about the risk of circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses.
It also complements the tailored Emergency Action Plans being implemented since last year in the remaining polio-endemic countries – Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria – including approaches in place to vaccinate children in insecure areas.
“Ending polio will not only be an 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,” says UNICEF executive director Anthony Lake.
The plan addresses the operational challenges of vaccinating children, including in densely populated urban areas, hard-to-reach areas and areas of insecurity. The plan includes the use of polio eradication experience and resources to strengthen immunisation systems in high-priority countries. It also lays out a process for planning how to transition the GPEI’s resources and lessons, particularly in reaching the most marginalised and vulnerable children and communities, so that they continue to be of service to other public health efforts. It is estimated that the GPEI’s efforts to eradicate polio could deliver total net benefits of $40 to $50-billion by 2035 from reduced treatment costs and gains in productivity.
Earlier this month, in a Scientific Declaration on Polio Eradication, more than 400 scientists and global health experts from around the world endorsed the GPEI plan, and reaffirmed the conviction that a polio-free world can be secured by 2018.
In remarks made at the Summit, Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, underscored the numerous benefits of ending polio and the need to provide health and development interventions to the hardest-to-reach children. He also called on additional donors to come forward with long-term commitments to fully fund the GPEI plan.
“This plan isn’t just a polio eradication plan, it’s a global immunisation plan with the goal of ending polio while improving efforts to protect all children, including the most vulnerable, with life-saving vaccines,” says Gates. “Successful implementation of the plan requires a significant but time-limited investment that will deliver a polio-free world and pay dividends for future generations.”
Gates announced that his foundation would commit one-third of the total cost of the GPEI’s budget over the plan’s six-year implementation, for a total of $1,8-billion. The funds will be allocated with the goal of enabling the GPEI to operate effectively against all of the plan’s objectives. To encourage other donors to commit the remaining funding up front, the Gates funding for 2016 to 2018 will be released when the GPEI secures funding that ensures the foundation’s contribution does not exceed one-third of the total budget for those years.
The plan’s $5,5-billion budget over six years requires sustaining current yearly spending to eradicate polio. It includes the costs 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 that can benefit other health and development programmes.
The new plan capitalises on the best opportunity to eradicate polio, with the number of children paralysed by this disease at the lowest level ever: just 223 cases in 2012 and only 19 so far this year. The urgency is linked to the tremendous advances made in 2012 and the narrow window of opportunity to seize on that progress and stop all poliovirus transmission before polio-free countries become re-infected.
“After millennia battling polio, this plan puts us within sight of the endgame. 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,” says World Health Organisation director-general Margaret Chan.
The Polio Eradication & Endgame Strategic Plan 2013-2018 was developed by the GPEI in extensive consultation with a broad range of stakeholders.
The plan incorporates the lessons learned from India’s success becoming polio-free in early 2012 and cutting-edge knowledge about the risk of circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses.
It also complements the tailored Emergency Action Plans being implemented since last year in the remaining polio-endemic countries – Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria – including approaches in place to vaccinate children in insecure areas.
“Ending polio will not only be an 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,” says UNICEF executive director Anthony Lake.
The plan addresses the operational challenges of vaccinating children, including in densely populated urban areas, hard-to-reach areas and areas of insecurity. The plan includes the use of polio eradication experience and resources to strengthen immunisation systems in high-priority countries. It also lays out a process for planning how to transition the GPEI’s resources and lessons, particularly in reaching the most marginalised and vulnerable children and communities, so that they continue to be of service to other public health efforts. It is estimated that the GPEI’s efforts to eradicate polio could deliver total net benefits of $40 to $50-billion by 2035 from reduced treatment costs and gains in productivity.
Earlier this month, in a Scientific Declaration on Polio Eradication, more than 400 scientists and global health experts from around the world endorsed the GPEI plan, and reaffirmed the conviction that a polio-free world can be secured by 2018.
In remarks made at the Summit, Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, underscored the numerous benefits of ending polio and the need to provide health and development interventions to the hardest-to-reach children. He also called on additional donors to come forward with long-term commitments to fully fund the GPEI plan.
“This plan isn’t just a polio eradication plan, it’s a global immunisation plan with the goal of ending polio while improving efforts to protect all children, including the most vulnerable, with life-saving vaccines,” says Gates. “Successful implementation of the plan requires a significant but time-limited investment that will deliver a polio-free world and pay dividends for future generations.”
Gates announced that his foundation would commit one-third of the total cost of the GPEI’s budget over the plan’s six-year implementation, for a total of $1,8-billion. The funds will be allocated with the goal of enabling the GPEI to operate effectively against all of the plan’s objectives. To encourage other donors to commit the remaining funding up front, the Gates funding for 2016 to 2018 will be released when the GPEI secures funding that ensures the foundation’s contribution does not exceed one-third of the total budget for those years.
The plan’s $5,5-billion budget over six years requires sustaining current yearly spending to eradicate polio. It includes the costs 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 that can benefit other health and development programmes.