On 28 January 2014, the European Parliament hosted a roundtable discussion on the challenges and opportunities for polio eradication (2014-2018).
Poliomyelitis, often called polio, was one of the most feared childhood diseases of the 20th century. Still in 1988, polio was endemic in 125 countries and was paralysing 350,000 children each year. Since then, the global effort that accompanied the launch of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) has led to an impressive 99% reduction of polio cases. 25 years after, polio is endemic in only three countries: Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan.
However, polio outbreaks in several countries in both Africa and Asia take place frequently. In these countries, indigenous transmission of the poliovirus has stopped but the virus is imported by endemic countries. Polio outbreaks especially affect countries whose health system was destroyed, such as in Somalia and in Syria. In endemic countries, progresses are threatened by safety issues and targeted killings of health workers providing polio vaccination.
Dr. Hamid Jafari, Director of Polio Operations and Research at the World Health Organisation explained that existing challenges in polio eradication are not technical but rather social and political. The example of India, where no indigenous polio case has been registered in the last three years, demonstrates that political and financial commitment can lead to eradication even in countries where all conditions for proliferation of the virus are in place.
Support from international donors is essential in this regard. The European Commissioner for Development, Andris Piebalgs, highlighted that the European Commission (EC) has invested 170 million euro for polio eradication programmes since 2000. Lately, the EC pledged an additional 5 million euro to the GPEI, which will be used to fight polio outbreaks in the Horn of Africa, by supporting both staff development and vaccine procurement.
It clearly emerged from the meeting that a final push for eradication of polio is much needed. On the contrary, decreased political commitment and investments would increase the risk of a comeback of the poliovirus. In this context, Global Health Advocates believes that the strengthening of routine immunisation systems in developing countries is critical. In this regard, the upcoming replenishment of the GAVI Alliance represents a very good opportunity for the European Institutions to contribute to this ambitious objective.