(MENAFN-Gulf Times)
A few years ago, as I was getting my children vaccinated for polio, I thought about how fortunate we can be to live in a place where we have such easy access to life-saving resources. We didn’t have to travel a long bus ride or travel long distances to get to the clinic, and there was no reason to believe that doses would not be in stock.
While I was fully aware of the need to protect my children, it never occurred to me that poliovirus could pose a real threat in Washington, DC. After all, the virus hadn’t been found in the United States for years. But recent developments are a wake-up call that underscores how critical something as simple and routine as vaccination can be.
In July, health officials confirmed that polio had paralyzed an unvaccinated person in New York. It was the first US case in almost a decade. Then the virus was found in sewage in other parts of New York state, following news that London had also detected poliovirus in its sewage. The World Health Organization has now declared both the USA and the UK as outbreak countries for variant poliovirus.
Such stories are not unique anywhere in the world. Earlier this year, wild cases of polio were confirmed in Africa for the first time in over five years, providing a chilling reminder of how fragile global progress on polio is. Although the number of cases has fallen by more than 99% since the global effort to eradicate the disease began in 1988, the final road to absolute zero has been difficult, though essential.
Fortunately, there is a global strategy to get the job done; but to be successful, it must be adequately funded. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) five-year strategy, launched last year, is already being implemented to stop and prevent further outbreaks. The strategy focuses on two priorities: working with vulnerable countries to protect every child with vaccines and improving surveillance to track the spread of the disease. The same strategy also helps deliver other life-saving vaccines to communities in remote areas and works to strengthen health systems.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation joined the GPEI in 2007 along with WHO, Unicef, Rotary International and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention because we recognized the opportunity the world had to ensure polio was never a child again paralyzes. This opportunity is even more evident today. Wild polio remains endemic in only two countries — Pakistan and Afghanistan — and although case numbers have risen slightly this year, they are still at extremely low levels.
There aren’t just moral arguments for ending polio. As a health economist, I also focus on the broad impact that such achievements can have. For polio, the financial benefits of eradicating it would be enormous. If we eradicate polio within the timeframe set by current strategy, the world could save more than $33 billion this century compared to the cost of continuing to control future polio outbreaks.
A growing number of stakeholders recognize this financial dimension and the opportunities it presents. Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, a public-private partnership supporting routine immunization in 73 of the world’s poorest countries, joined the GPEI in 2019. And just this month, more than a thousand global health experts and scientists from around the world signed a statement calling on countries to fully fund the global polio strategy.
Donors must heed this call and ensure the GPEI receives the $4.8 billion it needs. A fully funded strategy will be able to vaccinate 370 million children every year for five years while better preparing countries for future health threats. Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, the GPEI infrastructure has been the first line of defense for many countries. Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the polio program has supported contact tracing, disease surveillance and community engagement, and facilitated vaccine rollout. This is not a unique example: GPEI has responded to threats such as Ebola, Measles and Yellow Fever and has consistently demonstrated a high return on investment.
Certainly, the last leg in the fight against polio has proven to be the most difficult, and recent events have made things even more challenging. The pandemic reversed progress in routine immunizations around the world. Violent conflict, mistrust of vaccines and misinformation continue to pose obstacles in the last areas where polio is hiding. Due to the devastating floods in Pakistan this year, efforts to stop the spread of polio there must be intensified.
Although the destruction in Pakistan is staggering, it was heartening to see the impressive response from the government and the international community. Additional support is still needed to prevent further distress as floodwaters hamper access to health care and accelerate the spread of waterborne diseases such as polio, cholera and typhoid. There is no doubt that such conditions make polio harder to stop.
But these challenges are not insurmountable. GPEI partners and governments around the world have the collective experience and a clear plan to overcome it. And this month at the World Health Summit in Berlin, donors have the opportunity to contribute to a polio-free world by donating resources to the GPEI.
When we invest in polio eradication, we invest in a healthier world today and for generations to come. That is why our foundation remains true to the mission of the GPEI. We call on others to join us so that we can finally complete it. – Project Syndicate
* Gargee Ghosh is President of Global Policy and Advocacy at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
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