With just 11 confirmed polio cases so far in 2017, the world
is on the brink of eradicating polio, a vaccine-preventable disease that once
paralyzed hundreds of thousands of children each year, reports NaijaAgroNet.
To this effect, Rotary
International has voted the sum of $49.5m to help eradicate polio and its
attendant challenges, arguing that without full funding and political
commitment to eradication, the disease could return to countries that are now
polio-free and put children everywhere at risk.
Chair of Rotary’s International PolioPlus Committee, Michael
K. McGovern, said this donation was in recognition of the historic progress
worldwide and will aid the hosting of events in conjunction with Rotary
International’s fifth annual World Polio Day celebration on October 24, 2017.
This year, he also said, the event will be co-hosted by
Rotary and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and held at the foundation’s
headquarters in Seattle. The program will feature an update on the global fight
to end polio and an array of guest speakers, celebrities, and public health
experts. People around the world can view the livestream
of the event at this link on October 24 at 2:30 p.m. Pacific time.
“Rotary and its partners are closer than ever to eradicating
polio. World Polio Day is the ideal opportunity to celebrate our successes,
raise public awareness, and talk about what is needed to end this paralyzing
disease for good,” he said.
Rotary, he said, has granted $49.5 million to support
immunization and surveillance activities led by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
Specifically, some of the funds will support efforts to end
polio in the three countries where polio remains endemic: Afghanistan ($9.32
million), Pakistan ($8.94 million), and Nigeria ($7.71 million).
NaijaAgroNet
said, further funding will support efforts to keep six vulnerable countries
polio-free: Chad ($2.37 million), the Democratic Republic of Congo ($4.5
million), Guinea ($961,000), Somalia ($1.62 million), South Sudan ($3.77
million), and Sudan ($2.56 million). An additional $7.74 million will go toward
surveillance activities in Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean region.
Isaac Oyimah/GEE
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