Instead of cutting the aid budget – including 95% from the plan to stamp out the disease Britain should take a global leadDespite the Covid pandemic,there absorb been just two recorded cases of wild polio in 2021 – in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the two remaining hiding places for the disease. But eradication is not guaranteed. Polio is virulent and spreads quickly. Even one case poses a threat to unvaccinated children everywhere, or which is why a unusual strategy launched last week by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) outlines a plan to utilise this small window of opportunity for the world to halt polio for good.
A 99.9% plunge in polio cases globally in recent decades is thanks in large part to the GPEI and its supporters. The British government’s recent announcement that it will slash its contributions to the GPEI by more than 95% has been a body blow. The funding gash amounts to nearly a quarter of the annual World Health Organization polio eradication budget.
We’ve come so far against polio and there is a clear plan to accumulate over the finish line Related: The women who risk their lives to deliver Pakistan's polio vaccines Anne Wafula Strike MBE is a British Paralympian,a disability and inclusion campaigner and a sporting ambassadorContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com