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UN Secretary General recognizes polio workers and volunteers

Birmingham, UK – In the final push to rid the world of a crippling and potentially fatal disease, Rotary International today announced that it has raised US$ 90.7 million toward its US$ 200 Million Challenge, a fundraising effort supporting crucial polio eradication activities.

The announcement came at the Rotary International Convention, where UN Secretary General Ban-ki Moon was presented with a Polio Eradication Champion award, which he dedicated to polio workers who were killed last year in Afghanistan. Read the full speech (PDF)
More on the Rotary Convention
Photo: Alyce Henson/Rotary Images

Polio eradication cited as example of successful partnership
As UNICEF Executive Board discusses global health

International partners welcomed UNICEF's appraisal of partnerships - in particular of the agency's unique role in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative - during its Executive Board meeting this week.

In comments to the Executive Board session on global health, Dr. Robert Scott of Rotary International noted that polio eradication efforts provide an example of a successful partnership among governments, donors and international organizations. The Executive Director of Nigeria's Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Muhammad Ali Pate, called on UNICEF to help his country finally stop polio by establishing strong social mobilization capacity that would enable communities to voice their demand for vaccination against the disease.

For more than 20 years, the World Health Organization, Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and UNICEF have worked jointly through the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. It is one of the largest public-private partnerships for an internationally coordinated public health goal.

The Executive Board is the governing body of UNICEF, providing intergovernmental support and oversight to the organization, in accordance with the overall policy guidance of the United Nations General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council. Read more

Polio research body convenes in Geneva
Focus on pre- and post-eradication issues

Geneva, Switzerland: Last week at the World Health Organization (WHO) saw the convening of the third meeting of the Polio Research Committee (PRC), the body providing strategic guidance to research and product development for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

The group reviewed new and ongoing research activities relating to both pre- and post-eradication issues. Focus in particular was on addressing compromised oral polio vaccine (OPV) efficacy in northern India, through assessment of new vaccine strategies and products. There were discussions on the potential role of inactivated polio vaccine (IPV), to close a residual immunity gap in this area. At the same time, addressing underlying risk factors to compromised vaccine efficacy was explored, through administration of zinc supplementation to target populations (which has been shown to be associated with a reduction in diarrhoeal disease).

For the post-eradication era, discussions focused on a variety of research activities to develop and evaluate new and 'affordable' IPV options, including development of alternate seed strains for IPV production (to enable safer production in low-cost settings) , development of IPV adjuvant and development of IPV derived from attenuated Sabin strains.

Meeting subsequently to the PRC, the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) IPV working group focused discussions on reviewing existing evidence, to prepare for a consolidated WHO position paper on both OPV and IPV for routine immunization in the pre-eradication era. This group is also continuing its work to fully evaluate policy options for IPV use in low- and middle-income countries in the post-eradication era.

Countries go all-out against polio

Almost a quarter of a billion children vaccinated in 10 days

In the last 10 days of May, a total of 222,270,331 children in 22 countries were immunized against polio.

This included more than 74 million children in 11 west African countries immunized by 400,000 polio vaccinators last weekend in a synchronized response to a wild poliovirus outbreak from northern Nigeria that has swept as far westwards as Guinea.

A further 70 million children in northern India, 29 million in Pakistan and 49 million children in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, DR Congo, Eritrea, Djibouti, Yemen and Nepal received oral polio vaccine.

Three-year-old Thomas of Tsévié, Togo, receives To watch the west African campaigns

oral polio vaccine as part of West Africa's unfoldon googlemaps, click here.
seven-country synchronized outbreak response.
Photo: UNICEF/Togo/2009/Bonnaud

In his main address in Cairo during his visit to the MIddle East, US President Barack Obama highlighted the old and complex bonds between cultures and religions and spoke of the cooperative effort to eradicate polio. "Today I am announcing a new global effort with the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to eradicate polio," President Obama told millions of viewers watching the historic address around the world.

The 21-year Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) has reduced the incidence of polio by 99% worldwide. A partnership of national governments, international organizations and the private sector, the GPEI works to conduct surveillance for polio and vaccinate hundreds of millions of children every year against the paralyzing disease. Of the four countries where endemic polio survives, three are members of the OIC. Furthermore, of the fifteen countries that have reported polio re-infections in 2009, 10 are OIC members.

The GPEI, through WHO, has been working with OIC since 2002 to strengthen high-level political commitment to complete polio eradication; enhance support from religious leaders and Islamic scholars to help raise awareness about polio campaigns; and to help raise additional funds needed to conduct mass polio vaccination campaigns in polio-affected OIC member states. As a sign of close collaboration, not only have OIC Member States made financial contributions to GPEI, but their Heads of State, their Ministers of Foreign Affairs, and their Ministers of Health meetings have adopted statements of strong political commitment and advocated with the leaders of the polio-affected Member States. Statements from well respected religious leaders and Islamic scholars have also enhanced political and public support necessary to conduct polio campaigns in Africa and Asia.

Final challenges remain in the four endemic countries of Nigeria, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. But as President Obama reminded his audience, these challenges can be overcome when the countries and cultures of the world take them on together: "All these things must be done in partnership. Americans are ready to join with citizens and governments; community organizations, religious leaders, and businesses in Muslim communities around the world to help our people pursue a better life."

Read the full speech here.