99%
is not enough : polio eradication movement speaks out on need for financing
On
18 June, a broad range of stakeholders formally launched the new
Strategic Plan 2010-2012 for eradicating wild poliovirus, a goal which is
already 99% achieved but is seeing a renewed push to reach the final one per
cent.
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 partner organizations spoke at the event –
co-hosted by WHO Director-General Margaret Chan and the new UNICEF Executive
Director Tony Lake – to discuss the implementation, monitoring, economics
and financing of the new plan.
With
historic progress in northern Nigeria and northern India,
stakeholders at the launch stated loud and clear that the polio
eradication effort would not - could not - stumble at this final inch
because of a lack of funds.
Of a US$ 2.6 billion budget for the three years, US$ 1.3 is yet to be
filled. Of note, the
number of donors to the GPEI has dropped from 47 in 2004-05 to just 22 so
far for 2010-11.
Stakeholders
fully endorsed the range of approaches and new tools in the Plan and echoed
the World Health Assembly in calling on the GPEI to fully implement the new
strategies with immediate effect.
Failure to meet the financial requirements of eradication has
human consequences, in terms of children paralyzed for life by a disease
which is entirely vaccine-preventable, as well as the economic consequences
of ongoing supplementary immunization in perpetuity in order to maintain the
current number of cases. But most compelling are the ethical consequences:
failing to protect future generations when the tools are available to do so.
