Polio initiative calls for €2 billion more funding to eradicate virus

A global initiative for stamping out polio has called for more than €2 billion in additional funding to eliminate the highly infectious virus by 2029.

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI)’s Polio Oversight Board has said that $6.9 billion (€6.4 billion) in funding is needed to achieve the goal.

This was an increase of $2.1 billion (€1.9 billion) compared to the previous amount of funding that was deemed necessary, the GPEI said, after the timelines for eradication were extended.

The goal is now to eradicate wild poliovirus by the end of 2027 and type 2 variant poliovirus by the end of 2029, while the previous aim had been to eradicate both by 2026.

“Challenges to reaching all children with vaccines are serious, ranging from persistent violence to climate emergencies,” the GPEI said in a statement on Thursday. 

“The transmission of polio in conflict-affected areas in Gaza, Sudan, and Yemen is a stark reminder that where conflict debilitates health and sanitation systems, polio will inevitably appear unless we eradicate all forms of the virus”.  

The global group said donors had already raised $4.5 billion (€4.1 billion) but there was still a need for $2.4 billion (€2.2 billion) “to overcome today’s challenges and make polio history”.

What is polio and where is it circulating?

Polio is a highly infectious viral disease that mainly affects young children. While most people will not have symptoms, roughly one in 200 infections can lead to paralysis, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

There are two types of poliovirus: the naturally occurring strain called wild poliovirus and vaccine-derived poliovirus.

The vaccine-derived variant occurs when the weakened virus from the oral vaccine spreads and mutates in communities with low immunisation rates.

There are only two countries globally where wild poliovirus is endemic: Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The last wild poliovirus infection in Europe was in 1998, with the region declared polio-free in 2002.

The call for more funding for the GPEI comes as health workers began another round of emergency polio vaccination in Gaza that aims to provide second doses of the novel oral vaccine to more than half a million children.

Polio has been reported in environmental samples in Gaza, and a ten-month-old baby was paralysed in July due to a vaccine-derived variant of the virus.

Only two diseases have previously been eradicated globally: smallpox in 1980 and rinderpest – which affects livestock – in 2011.