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 N 18 June in Geneva, a
broad range of stakeholders formally launched the new Strategic Plan 2010-2012 for eradicating wild poliovirus,
highlighting a broad range of innovative strategies to target the remaining, shrinking pockets of polio.
Given the historic progress against poliovirus in Nigeria and India, the stakeholders stated loud and clear that polio
eradication would not - could not - stumble at this final inch because of a lack of funds. Those concerns are well-founded
- the Strategic Plan is already being threatened by a $1.3 billion funding gap, which has seen allocations for key
activities such as disease surveillance reduced by 25% and immunization campaigns in polio-free areas curtailed or
postponed.
The Ministers of Health of Nigeria, Angola and Senegal, among a number of other senior health ministry officials, existing
and potential funders, vaccine manufacturers and key |
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partners spoke at the event – co-hosted by WHO Director-General Margaret
Chan and UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake, together with Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – and echoed the World Health Assembly in calling on
the GPEI to implement the new strategies with immediate effect.
Carl-Wilhelm Stenhammar, Rotary International Foundation Trustee Chair, said Rotarians were “very excited” about the Plan.
“It’s the roadmap that will guide us the final distance to our goal of a polio-free world. It’s a short distance and a
challenging one, and one that our 1.2 million Rotary club members are committed to travelling with all of you.”
In a moving conclusion, Mr Lake said it was apparent where polio was making its final stand - in the most forgotten
places, among the most forgotten people. |
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“Let’s act and let’s act with an eye to results,” he said. “We must all
dedicate ourselves to writing this final chapter and closing the book on polio forever. For every child.”
 Chris Black/WHO
UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake and WHO Director-General Margaret Chan sign Rotary’s Kick Polio Out of Africa soccer ball at the launch of the GPEI Strategic Plan 2010-2012 in Geneva. |
Tajikistan outbreak a harsh reminder of the threat of polio |
 HE large polio outbreak which has crippled more than 400 children in Tajikistan is in
decline, thanks to four back-to-back mass vaccination campaigns.
A tragic reminder of the vigilance required to maintain the fight against polio, the Tajikistan outbreak is the first major
outbreak of polio in a certified polio-free region, and a result of an under-immunized population being infected by wild
poliovirus type 1 that originated in polio-endemic India.
On 23 April, the Russian Reference Laboratory confirmed the outbreak after confirmation that the spike in reported acute
flaccid paralysis
Tajikistan Wild Poliovirus, 2010 |
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cases was indeed polio. Tajikistan is part of WHO’s European
Region, which was certified as polio-free in 2002. Tajikistan’s last indigenous cases of polio occurred in 1997.
In response to the outbreak, a team of clinical, epidemiological and virological experts was sent to Tajikistan to assist
national authorities in implementing the Short Interval Additional Dose strategy - immunizing 1.1 million children under five
with two doses of monovalent oral polio type 1 vaccine at two-week intervals to rapidly raise immunity levels, then
immunizing all children under 15 years with a further two doses. |
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Tajikistan’s neighbours have taken precautionary measures, with Afghanistan,
Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan all vaccinating their children and intensifying surveillance.
The size of the outbreak in Tajikistan means that it outstrips all other polio-affected countries, accounting for more than
80 percent of all polio cases worldwide this year. Until polio is eradicated, any country is at risk of an importation, and
high population immunity is the only protection against a large outbreak.
- Rod Curtis/WHO
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Rotary raises $141 million to achieve its vision |
OTARY’S promise to eradicate polio worldwide took center stage at the 2010 Rotary International (RI) Convention in
Montréal, Canada, on 22 June, as Rotarians were urged to finish the task the organization began 25 years ago.
Dr Bruce Aylward, director of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative at the World Health Organization, encouraged
attendees to share the “terrific news” that Rotary’s vision of a polio-free world is within sight.
The night before, polio survivor and Rotarian Ramesh Ferris hand-cycled from the Palais des Congrès to Bonsecours Market
in Old Montréal for a unique ceremony that featured the landmark being illuminated with the challenge: En finir avec la
polio (End Polio Now). At the lighting ceremony, Rotary announced that more than US$141 million had been raised toward
the US$200 million challenge grant
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from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Earlier that day, a soccer ball signed by dignitaries in more than 20 African countries as part of the
Kick Polio Out of Africa campaign arrived on stage to thunderous applause. Marie-Iréne Richmond-Ahoua, chair of the Côte
d’Ivoire PolioPlus Committee and a member of the Rotary Club of Abidjan-Bietry, presented RI President John Kenny with
the Kick Polio Out of Africa soccer ball to sign.
“Polio eradication is not optional - it is an obligation,” Richmond-Ahoua said. “We must commit to overcoming the
remaining obstacles and free Africa, Southeast Asia, and the world from this crippling disease, which ruins the
lives of children. As an African woman and mother, I will not tolerate it.”
- Petina Dixon-Jenkins/Rotary
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Ramesh Ferris, who in 2008 hand-cycled across Canada, raising more than $300,000 for polio eradication, stands by
Rotary’s illuminating challenge to ‘End Polio Now’.
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Anthony Lake takes reins at UNICEF |
N 1 May 2010, Anthony Lake officially became UNICEF’s sixth Executive Director. Mr Lake wasted no time in outlining his
commitment to polio eradication, flying to Geneva just a month into his role to join WHO, Rotary, CDC and the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation in formally launching the 2010-2012 Strategic Plan for eradicating wild poliovirus.
“The complete eradication of polio is an absolute goal,” Mr Lake told the key stakeholders’ meeting, “and it requires
absolute commitment from us all.”
The new Executive Director has long-standing ties with UNICEF, having served for nine years on the Board of the US Fund
for UNICEF, including as Chairman from 2004-07.
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 Mr Lake has broad experience in
international development and children’s rights, through ongoing work with non-governmental organizations spanning four
decades. During that time he has led International Voluntary Services, acted as an international advisor to the
International Committee of the Red Cross, and been a board member of Save the Children and the Overseas Development
Council.
The United States’ National Security Advisor (1993-97) under President Bill Clinton, and State Department Director of
Policy Planning in the Carter administration (1977-81), Mr Lake was more recently appointed to be the President’s
Special Envoy to Haiti, Ethiopia and Eritrea, and senior foreign policy advisor to the presidential campaign of Barack
Obama.
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Gates takes first-hand look at progress in Nigeria, India |
HE tremendous progress made by Nigeria and India in the fight against polio represents a “one-time opportunity” to achieve
polio eradication. That is the view of Mr Bill Gates, the co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, after visiting the
key polio-endemic regions of Bihar, India, and Kano, Nigeria, in May and June.
In India, Mr Gates travelled by boat to the remote village of Guleria to see for himself the enormous challenges of polio
eradication in Bihar state. While he recognized the difficulty of reaching every last child along the Kosi River floodplain,
Mr Gates was struck by the quality and reach of India’s polio programme, which he said was unmatched by any country in the
world.
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In Nigeria, Mr Gates paid tribute to the collective effort of the government, traditional and religious leaders, whose support
since his last visit in February 2009 to witness the signing of the Abuja Commitments to Polio Eradication has been a key
factor in the 99% drop in polio cases in 2010.
“All Nigerians should be proud of Nigeria’s recent progress against polio,” Mr Gates said. “Thanks to committed political,
traditional, and religious leaders, dedicated health workers, and loving parents who want to protect their children, Nigeria
is on a path towards eliminating polio.”
- Melissa Covelli/Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation |
|
Mr Bill Gates travels by boat to the
remote village of Guleria. |
Horn of Africa polio-free once again |
HE Horn
of Africa is polio-free, with Sudan, Kenya and Uganda having reported no wild poliovirus cases for more than a year.
The outbreak began in 2008, following the reappearance of wild poliovirus type 1 in the border area of southern Sudan and
Ethiopia. In early 2009, the outbreak spread to Port Sudan, Kenya and Uganda. The cases in Port Sudan sparked particular
international concern as it was from this area that, from 2004 to 2006, wild poliovirus type 1 spread to re-infect several
countries, including Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Yemen and Indonesia.
However, the implementation of swiftly conducted mop-up campaigns in northern Sudan, Kenya and Uganda, followed by multiple
immunization activities, all supported by high-level political commitment,
 Floris Oudshoorn |
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stopped the outbreak within six months - and the
region has now stayed polio-free for more than 12 months since the most recent case.
Recognizing that the epicentre of the outbreak was in southern Sudan, the President of the Government of Southern Sudan, His Excellency General Salva Kiir Mayardit, launched a ‘President Action Plan for Polio Eradication’, directing all state
governments, county and district heads to personally oversee the quality of outbreak operations in their areas. Multiple
immunization activities were held, and Sudan’s most recent case was reported on 27 June 2009.
Uganda drew praise for the speed with which it fully implemented the international polio outbreak response standards,
conducting a mop-up immunization activity around the index case within days of it being confirmed, followed by multiple
high-quality immunization activities, with no cases reported since 10 May 2009.
Kenya, which had been polio-free since 1984, closed out the outbreak in that country by implementing the Short Interval
Additional Dose strategy, providing multiple doses of oral polio vaccine two weeks apart to the highest-risk populations in
Turkana. The result was immediate, with the last case in Kenya reported on 30 July 2009. Ethiopia has been free of wild
poliovirus since 2008 and Somalia since 2007.
- Oliver Rosenbauer/WHO
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Africa unites against polio |
 FRICA
joined hands and opened its borders to tackle polio head on this year, when 400,000 volunteers and health workers in 19
African countries vaccinated 85 million children on one weekend in March - then repeated the exercise in April - in a
historic, coordinated campaign to end the wild poliovirus outbreak.
On 6 March and again on 24 April 2010, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Cape Verde, Chad, Cote
d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo
came together to fight polio, vaccinating children under 5 years of age over a three-day period.
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WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Luis Gomes Sambo, said the synchronized campaign showed Africa’s
determination to be free of polio. “From the top leadership to local district administrators in every country,” he said,
“we are each accountable to the African child – to vaccinate every child and achieve high coverage.”
In many cases, the campaigns were launched by the President, Prime Minister or First Lady, and significant media coverage
ensured the maximum number of parents were alerted to the polio drive.
The First Milestone of the GPEI Strategic Plan 2010-2012 requires that all outbreak countries (with onset of outbreak in
2009) cease transmission of polio by mid-2010.
- Michelle Ng/Columbia
University
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Chad declares war on polio |
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AM determined, and I declare war today against polio.” So said the President of Chad, Idriss Deby Itno, as he launched the
March National Immunization Days at a special ceremony in the capital N’Djamena by immunizing a child in front of the
country’s senior political figures and media.
President Deby Itno called on the entire nation - “especially Governors, administrative authorities, traditional chiefs,
sultans, cantonal chiefs, and on all the decentralized offices of the ministries, on our defence and security bodies to
rise up as one person and contribute to successful vaccination. This is about the lives of our children.”
He called on journalists to raise awareness and on the Ministry of Health to be vigilant in puting an end to low-quality
immunization activities. “This is about our children,” he said. “I ask our sisters, mothers, fathers and brothers to
vaccinate our children in order to have a healthy population”. |
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President Deby Itno was joined by Hollywood actress and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Mia Farrow, who flew to Chad to support
the nationwide immunization campaign - part of the synchronized polio immunization programme targeting 85 million children
across 19 countries of West and Central Africa.
WHO/Chad
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The President also announced his intention to contribute approximately US$7.8 million to
support immunization efforts, including for polio eradication in the country. Following the President’s call, all the 22
provincial Governors, along with traditional and religious leaders, high-level military officials, and civil society
representatives from across the country held a meeting to review and revise polio eradication efforts in the country and
then re-affirmed their commitment by signing the “N’Djaména Declaration for the polio eradication in Chad”.
- Rod Curtis/WHO
The President of Chad, Idriss Deby Itno, wears the yellow hat of a Rotary vaccinator as he
gives vaccine to a child. |
Polio on the run in Nigeria, India |
HE recent dramatic decline in polio cases across Nigeria and India has continued through the first two quarters of 2010.
As of 20 July, 2010, there have been six cases in Nigeria this year - compared with 346 at the same time last year. In
India, there have been 24 cases, compared with 136 at the same time last year.
But it’s not just the numbers that have excited international observers - in both countries, key endemic areas have not
reported cases for months. In India, the remaining endemic states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have (as of 20 July) not
reported a type 1 case since November 2009. And northern Nigeria’s
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Kano state, which as recently as last year was the global epicentre of
type 1 polio, has not reported a case for more than 12 months.
In both countries, the remaining, shrinking pockets of wild poliovirus are being targeted by area and population-specific
strategies outlined in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative Strategic Plan 2010-2012 to maximize the number of
children vaccinated in supplementary immunization activities. In addition, the availability of bivalent oral polio vaccine
is proving successful in providing immunity to both serotypes 1 and 3 with the one dose.
A traditional trumpeter
announces the presence of a polio vaccination team in the streets of Kano, northern Nigeria. |
|
 Rod Curtis
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Kanu aims to kick polio out of Nigeria |
 |
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 IGERIA’S
soccer captain Nwankwo Kanu took time out of his preparations for South Africa’s World Cup to remind Nigeria’s parents of
one goal that will endure for all generations: “I’ve scored many goals for my country,” the 33-year-old striker said in a
series of Public Service Announcements aired across Nigeria on radio and TV. “But there’s still one goal I want to score:
I want to kick polio out of Nigeria.”
In the PSAs, Kanu appeals to parents across Nigeria to help consign polio to memory: “Most of the countries in Africa hav
kicked out polio”. Let’s do the same. Be a good parent. Do what I have done and immunize your child against polio.”
Kanu is the most decorated African footballer in history, having won the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Cup, the Premier
League title, the FA Cup. He has captained Nigeria to Olympic Gold and won two African Player of the Year awards.
Although coming to the end of his international career, Kanu remains a hugely influential figure in Nigeria, and did not
hesitate when asked to participate in Nigeria’s fight against polio. “I understand I’m a role model,” Kanu said. “As
footballers, children look up to us. If this can help more children get immunized against polio, then that’s a good
thing.”
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“Kick Polio Out of Africa” Ball Completes Journey |
SOCCER
ball first kicked off in Cape Town by Archbishop Desmond Tutu - himself a polio survivor - finally landed in Montreal,
Canada, at Rotary International’s June Convention. In between, the ball traversed 22 African countries, where it was
signed by 22 dignitaries in a further example of African unity in the fight against polio.
In 1996, former South African President Nelson Mandela formally launched the “Kick Polio Out of Africa” awareness
campaign. The logo, showing a child kicking a ball out of the African continent, is printed on the side of the ice-boxes
carried by vaccination teams across Africa during polio immunization campaigns, and has become synonymous with the polio
eradication effort.
Given Mr Mandela’s involvement - and the fact that South Africa was hosting Africa’s first World Cup finals - Rotary
International took the |
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opportunity to engage Africa’s leaders in the fight against polio. However, no one foresaw “the ball”
becoming the phenomenon it did.
In every country, the President, Prime Minister or Health Minister took the time to sign the ball. In Chad, President
Idriss Deby Itno delayed an official international visit in order to be able to sign the ball. Mr Bill Gates signed the
ball during a visit to Nigeria to examine the polio programme there.
The ball’s journey could be followed online at www.kickpoliooutofafrica.org, where 10,616 people joined Africa’s leaders
in virtually signing the ball. The campaign also acted as an enormous fundraising effort to help Rotary raise $200 million
to match the $355 million in challenge grants given by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
- Michelle Ng/Columbia University |
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Afghanistan, India Bowl out Polio at world cricket tournament
|
 Cornelia Walther
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FGHANISTAN and India may have gone head-to-head on the field at the International Cricket Council World Twenty20
tournament in St Lucia, but off the playing arena, the teams came together to express their support for polio eradication.
On the eve of the teams’ historic first game, Indian batsman Suresh Raina and Afghanistan captain Nowroz Mangal exchanged
“Bowl Out Polio” cricket bats autographed by members of each team to demonstrate their regional solidarity in the campaign
to eradicate polio from India and Afghanistan.
Afghanistan - playing in its first top-tier international tournament - may have lost the match, but the success of the
encounter goes far beyond the cricket pitch. These teams have demonstrated that regional partnership is critical to
eliminating this disease that cripples and kills young children, and which
remains endemic in India, Afghanistan and Pakistan. |
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India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni stressed that as long as India and Afghanistan continued to host polio transmission,
their neighbours were at high risk of re-infection. “If we do not end polio in India, the rest of the world will suffer,”
Dhoni said. “Nothing is more important than our children’s future.”
As India nears the goal of eradication, the frequency of polio vaccination rounds have intensified in order to maximize
immunity to the disease.
Cricketers in India have been intensively involved with the polio eradication effort since 2003, when the “Bowl Out Polio” campaign was launched by Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and Zaheer Khan. Today, the team promotes oral polio vaccination
countrywide.
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Indian batsman Suresh Raina and Afghanistan
captain Nowroz Manga exchange Bowl Out Polio bats in a stunning example of regional support for polio eradicationt.
Afghanistan player Raees Ahmadzai believes vaccination is non-negotiable. “My future as a cricket player was secured a
long time ago,” he said. “I was immunized against polio when I was a child.”
Together, these Indian and Afghan cricketers have shown that it takes more than one country to eradicate polio - like
cricket, winning this battle requires a team effort.
- Cornelia Walther & Sherine Guirguis/UNICEF
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When the search for poliovirus is literally a drop in a bucket
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NCE a
week, in New Delhi and Mumbai’s most crowded quarters, teams of people wearing aprons and gloves stand together on
bridges, carefully lowering buckets into the running streams of open sewage. It’s a picture repeated in Pakistan, Egypt,
Senegal and Indonesia.
Passers-by are forgiven for shaking their heads: it looks like they’re fishing in sewage, and in fact, they are. They’re
fishing for wild poliovirus.
‘Environmental sampling’ has become a key strategy in the hunt for the final, dwindling reservoirs of polio globally. Just
one in 1,000 children infected by type 3 polio becomes paralyzed by the virus, meaning 999 out of 1,000 children carry the
virus silently, infecting entire communities. Similarly, only one in 200 children infected with type 1 polio become
paralyzed. Sewage sampling allows the polio eradication initiative to clearly determine whether the virus is circulating
in what otherwise appears to be a healthy town or village.
Dr Esther de Gourville, Team Leader of the Global Polio Laboratory Network, says that environmental sampling, coupled with
an active disease surveillance network to identify and test paralyzed children, is helping the Global Polio Eradication
Initiative close the net on polio.
“If you imagine wild poliovirus infection as an iceberg, with the paralyzed cases being the tip of the iceberg,
environmental sampling is a way of being able to see what is hiding beneath the surface,” Dr de Gourville said, “because
the vast majority of children who are infected with polio will not be paralyzed.”
Samples, once collected, are quickly placed in cool boxes and transported to one of the GPEI Laboratory Network’s 145
laboratories for testing. One such laboratory, in New Delhi, has found three positive samples since testing began in May -
despite there being no cases of polio in Delhi this year. These positive samples allow the GPEI to determine with accuracy
where polio is spreading and alert the medical community to enhance acute flaccid paralysis surveillance and adjust
immunization plans accordingly.
- Rod Curtis/WHO
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 Environmental
samples are collected weekly
for laboratory testing in India.
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The WHO Region of the Americas Completes Phase I Containment
|
 Wild
poliovirus materials being destroyed.
 N March 2010, the WHO Region of the Americas (AMR) officially achieved Phase
I containment of wild poliovirus, joining the Western Pacific (WPR) and European (EMR) regions in attaining Phase I.
Almost 60,000 biomedical laboratories and institutions in the 43 countries and territories of AMRO were surveyed and in
total, wild poliovirus materials were found in 215 facilities in nine countries.
The status of wild poliovirus materials in the 215 facilities will be closely monitored, with the
Global Action Plan to minimize poliovirus facility-associated risk in the post-eradication/post-OPV era (GAPIII)
providing the strategy for further containment.
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Phase II Containment, which will begin when polio is eradicated in one of the four remaining endemic countries, involves
Member States establishing long-term policies for destruction and/or containment of wild poliovirus materials to minimize
the number of facilities holding poliovirus materials.
When one year passes without a wild poliovirus case globally, wild poliovirus materials will be limited to a few
facilities essential for achieving the global cessation of oral polio vaccine (OPV). At the time of OPV cessation, all
live polioviruses, including OPV and related viruses, will be contained, regulated, and limited to a handful of
facilities.
- Michelle Ng/Columbia University
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Funding gap threatens progress |
HE new
Strategic Plan to eradicate polio by 2013 is already being compromised by a lack of funds, despite the fact the new
approaches outlined in the Plan are providing an unprecedented opportunity to finish the job, with key endemic countries
witnessing historic gains against the disease.
As of 1 August 2010, the polio eradication programme faces a $1.3 billion funding gap, which has already seen allocations
for key activities such as disease surveillance reduced by 25% and immunization campaigns curtailed, postponed or
reprioritized. US$233 is still needed for 2010.
After several rounds of synchronized vaccination campaigns across West Africa were completed, planned SIAs have been
delayed or curtailed to minimize the funding risk. |
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Decisions to modify immunization activities are being made based on epidemiology, giving priority to
activities in the highest-risk areas (endemic countries and those with re-established transmission). In order to meet the
first Milestone of the new Strategic Plan 2010-2012 (by mid/2010 ending all polio outbreaks with onset in 2009),
activities were held in June for Burkina Faso, Gambia, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal.
With response activities in Tajikistan and its surrounding countries absorbing much of the flexible funding held for
emergencies, there is an urgent need for additional flexible funding. While additional funds are expected in the third
quarter, supplementary immunization activities will continue to face adjustments until funding gaps are fully filled.
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‘End Polio Now’ message lights up the globe |
 URING
the week of 23 February - in honour of Rotary’s 105th Anniversary - iconic landmarks around the globe were lit up with the
Rotary challenge to ‘End Polio Now’. In what is becoming a popular tradition, the polio eradication message was projected
onto monuments including:
• The Wrigley Building: Chicago, Illinois, USA
• The pyramid of Khafre: Giza, Egypt
• Tower Bridge: London, England
• The Obelisk: Buenos Aires, Argentina
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• Taipei 101: Taipei, Taiwan
• Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela: Galicia, Spain
• Torre de Ayuntamiento de Alcoy: Alicante, Spain
• Church of San Juan Bautista: Arucas, Canary Islands
• Visconti Castle: Abbiategrasso, Italy
• Royal Palace: Caserta, Italy
• Old Port Captain’s Office: Cape Town, South Africa
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• Iguacu Falls: Foz do Iguacu City, Brazil
• Lake Marathon Dam: Marathon, Greece
• Castel dell’Ovo: Naples, Italy
• SM Mall of Asia: Manila, Philippines
• Queen’s Road Central: Hong Kong
• Old Opera House: Frankfurt, Germany
• Gloucester Cathedral:
Gloucester, England
End Polio Now is a new message with an old backdrop: Scotland’s Eilean Donan
castle
spread the message proudly.
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Domestic funding equals G8 pledges |
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Domestic contributions for 2010 |
HE
financial commitments of polio-infected countries to tackling the virus within their borders brings confirmed and
projected funding from 2010-12 from domestic resources to the same level as confirmed and projected funding from G8
donors, with both categories of funding representing about 28% of total GPEI contributions and projections for the period.
India alone will give more than US$150 million annually, while Nigeria contributes nearly US$20 million.
The G8 recommitted to polio eradication at the Muskoka Summit in Canada in June and work is underway to turn this
commitment into firm funding: G8 funding has fallen from 62% of the GPEI contributions in 2003-05 to 28% in 2010-12.
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 |
Publications and resources on www.polioeradication.org |
• GPEI Strategic Plan 2010-2012
• SAGE Report, conclusions and recommendations of April 2010
• CDC Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report:
Progress in Nigeria from January 2009 to June 2010
• Polio Pipeline Issue 6, Summer 2010 |
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• Research published on the affordability of inactivated poliovirus vaccines
• Research published assessing the global supply and demand for inactivated poliovirus vaccine, post-eradication
• Progress report to the World Health Assembly |
New Contributions/Projections
received for the period 2010-2012
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Events |
All figures US$ millions
As of 14 May 2010 |
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• 20 August: Staff Benda Bilili performs in Geneva
• 22-24 September: Global Polio Laboratory Network meeting in Geneva
• 27-28 September: Expert Review Committee for Polio Eradication meeting in Nigeria
• 9-11 November: Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) meeting in Geneva
• 1-3 December: Global Polio Management Team meeting in Geneva
• 9 December: OPV/IPV meeting in Geneva
• 16-19 December: Polio Expert Review Committee Meeting in New Delhi
• 17-25 January: WHO Executive Board meeting in Geneva
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“Now it all comes down to this: The final chapter, the final push in the fight to rid the world of a
killer that has devastated millions of lives. And we all have the truly historic opportunity - the historic duty - to
write that final chapter together and eradicate polio forever.”
Mr Anthony Lake, Executive Director, UNICEF |
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