KARACHI: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced has announced that it will commit $1.2 billion to support efforts to end all forms of polio globally. The new financial commitment will support implementation of the GPEI’s Polio Eradication Strategy 2022-2026, which aims to end wild poliovirus in the last two endemic countries—Pakistan and Afghanistan—and stop outbreaks of new variants of the virus. The foundation has contributed nearly $5 billion to GPEI.
A statement issued ahead of a key pledging moment that will be co-hosted by Germany and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), quoted Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as saying “Polio eradication is within reach. But as far as we have come, the disease remains a threat. Working together, the world can end this disease.”
He said “I want to thank Germany for co-hosting this week’s events and its longstanding support for polio eradication, and I urge other donors to support the eradication strategy to ensure no one is paralyzed by polio again.”
“The fight against polio has done far more than protect children against polio. It has played a key role in strengthening health systems,” Melinda French Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was quotd as saying.
She said “Polio workers have been especially vital in responding to COVID-19 and reaching communities about the importance of vaccination against preventable diseases.”
The statement said that working closely with governments across the globe, the GPEI has helped reduce polio cases globally by more than 99% and has helped prevent an estimated 20 million cases of polio paralysis since 1988.
Despite this historic progress, interruptions in routine immunization, vaccine misinformation, political unrest, and the tragic floods in Pakistan in 2022 have underscored the urgent need to finish the job against polio.
