OIC countries concern about Polio
Regional, Health, 7/9/2005

The Foreign Minister of Turkey included a statement of polio in his address at the recent conference of the Organization of the Islamic Conference OIC held in Yemen.. He said: "Before departing Turkey for Yemen, the Director of the World Health Organization approached us to convey to the Secretary General and the member states the appeal of the WHO for cooperation. WHO is concerned about the difficulties faced in the fight against polio in some of the OIC countries. We believe that OIC can and should adopt a more active stance in combating this dangerous epidemic." WHO and UNICEF did attend the conference and made remarks calling for more support in the Plenary.

UK pledges Before the start of the G-8 summit, the UK announced it will be making a three-year polio funding commitment of £60 million (US$108 million): US$ 36 million to fill the immediate gap; and US$ 36 million in each of the next two years.

Hilary Benn International Development Secretary Hilary Benn today announced a multimillion pound package of funding to eradicate polio by end 2005/early 2006, and to boost the effort to ensure the world stays polio free thereafter.

He said the UK is to provide £60m over the next three years.

The UK is to immediately and unilaterally plug the remaining funding gap of £20m ($36m) so that polio can be eradicated. The UK will also give another £40m in 2006-08 towards the cost of vaccinating over 500m children to ensure polio can never break out again.

There are 12 countries where there are still cases of polio: Yemen, Nigeria, Indonesia, Sudan, India, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Niger, Mali, Cameroon and Angola. Polio mainly affects children under five and disproportionately affects children in Africa; in 2004, 90% of the 1,255 cases were found in the region.

The money will go towards: providing vaccines and immunization; paying health workers to carry out the immunization program; investing in laboratories to ensure the right vaccine is available for the different strains of the virus; and putting in place systems to identify new cases and provide help as soon as possible.

Announcing the funding, Hilary Benn said: "The international community's fight against polio is one of the real success stories in the global campaign to combat poverty.

"In 1982, polio was eradicated in the UK, but was still a major cause of death and paralysis amongst children in developing countries. In 1988, the World Health Assembly announced the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (PEI) - a worldwide program of action to fight the disease. Seventeen years ago, there were 350,000 cases reported. Last year there were 1,255 cases Ð a fall of over 99%. The funding I have announced today will, together with other contributions already made, fulfill a long standing G8 pledge to fully fund the final effort to eradicate the disease.

"The polio eradication campaign has been an unprecedented global coalition. Led by the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the US Centers for Disease Control and Rotary International, the campaign has, for example, had the strong backing of traditional and Islamic leaders in Somalia, and saw Islamic leaders from Saudi Arabia traveling to northern Nigeria to reassure religious leaders there about the safety of the vaccine.

"And it even saw warring parties in places like Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Sierra Leone agreeing to momentary ceasefires so that health workers could get in and vaccinate children. As recently as January this year, rebels and government forces in Darfur stopped fighting to let the heath workers in." "But we cannot stop here. Ensuring polio never breaks out again will cost over £400m between 2006 and 2008. That's why today I have also announced that we will contribute £40m to this post-eradication effort. I call on others to do the same."

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