Victory over polio – forever
We have been committed to the global fight against polio for over 30 years. It is our stated goal to eradicate polio worldwide – and we have achieved our goal FAST. When we started vaccinating six million children in the Philippines in 1979, it seemed like an unattainable utopia. Today, there are only a few cases of infection in two countries around the world: Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. And here too we will defeat the virus.
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) is spearheaded by national governments and led by a global partnership of five organizations: WHO, CDC, Rotary International, UNICEF and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, working in collaboration with bilateral donors to eradicate poliovirus. GPEI develops annual operating budgets, which define the program’s Financial Resourcing Requirements (FRR) and fundraises to support polio eradication.
Currently GPEI invests approximately US$ 1 billion/year to conduct disease surveillance and supplementary polio immunization campaigns, promote community-based vaccination efforts, provide expert technical assistance to governments to build country-level capacity to detect outbreaks, support outbreak response, and boost demand for vaccination through communication and social mobilization campaigns. Approximately 60% of GPEI’s annual budget is invested directly in the three endemic countries – Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria – and to protect the gains in seven additional countries deemed at high risk for outbreak.