As Donors Ramp up Polio Funding, Worries of Comeback Persist

Polio cases around have declined globally by more than 99 percent since 1988, but the type 1 poliovirus remains endemic in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where it has made a comeback this year and infected 102 people. Credit: Ashfaq Yusufzai/IPS By James ReinlUNITED NATIONS, Nov 20 2019 (IPS) Efforts to wipe polio off the face of the planet took a step forward this week, with a multibillion-dollar fundraiser in the Middle East helping eradication schemes tackle a virus that disproportionately kills and cripples children in poor countries. Donor governments and philanthropists pledged $2.6 billion on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi to immunise 450 million children against polio each year — further beating back a bug that is only endemic nowadays in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Some global health experts say mankind is walking its “final mile” towards a polio-free world, but others warn that so-called polioviruses could re-emerge and spread swiftly, as was witnessed to deadly effect in the Philippines earlier this year. In Abu Dhabi, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organisation (WHO), said “one of the world’s largest health workforces” had been assembled so that medics reach “every last child with vaccines”. #polio end game strategy 2019 – 2023 strongly supported by partners and global leaders pledging U$2.6 billion at Reaching the Last Mile Forum #RLMForum in Adu Dhabi today. read more https://t.co/mQJa8yjqGr — WHO Afghanistan (@WHOAfgha...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Aid Asia-Pacific Development & Aid Featured Global Headlines Health IPS UN: Inside the Glasshouse Poverty & SDGs Regional Categories TerraViva United Nations polio eradication World Health Organization (WHO) Source Type: news