Polio u0027s Defeat and Its Global Meaning

Paul Offit ... Vaccine allowed us to eliminate polio virus.

Globally, investing in polio eradication helps everyone.

Ending polio will be a key milestone on the path to realizing this vision.

The solution is therefore not much more complicated than a polio vaccine.

It marked the latest in a series of attacks on polio vaccination charity workers. On December 18, five female aid workers were killed as they were administering polio vaccinations.

Last year alone, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative delivered almost two billion doses of polio vaccine to 575 million children in 94 countries.

Nineteen years later, Aseefa is Pakistan s Goodwill Ambassador on Polio Eradication and a powerful advocate of completing her mother s dream of a polio free country.

In 2011, a polio outbreak in China was traced back to Pakistan.

As a young child in South Africa, I nearly died from polio.

Pockets of polio transmission also persist in India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.

Eradicating polio will be a milestone on our path to realizing this vision.

In eradicating polio, Pakistan would not just play its part in eliminating the disease worldwide.

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is also fostering unprecedented public health action among nations in order to beat remaining pockets of polio in south Asia and parts of Africa. In the midst of uncertainty following the terrorist attacks of September 11 th , the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan, determined not to let the conflict sidetrack progress in polio eradication, immunized 35 million of their children in coordinated efforts in September and November 2001.

Saving children from the agony of polio is a great achievement, but the rewards for global public health are even greater.

The G8 leaders' commitment to increase support for polio eradication in Africa is promising.

Failure to eradicate polio for lack of funds would be a squandered opportunity for the world.

Today, we have the fewest cases of polio, in fewer countries, than ever before.

As the worldwide polio burden plummets, we become safer from importations of the virus.

The advances included heart surgery, drug treatment of high blood pressure, chemotherapy for cancer, and prevention of polio. Comroe traced the origins of these advances back to the breakthrough discoveries that made them possible.

A recent ceremony in Copenhagen marked a singular achievement in global public health, an achievement, which confirms that development aid works, and that it works best in partnership. An independent commission certified the 51 countries of the World Health Organization European Region free of polio.

Without these funds, polio immunization activities will have to be postponed, cancelled or seriously cut back in several countries.

The advances included heart surgery, drug treatment of high blood pressure, chemotherapy for cancer, and prevention of polio.

Antipolio worker, Hilal Khan, is honored in Peshawar, Pakistan.

A global polio laboratory network gives countries access to the most sophisticated disease surveillance system in the world.

With a little more investment, we can deliver a polio free world to our children, indeed, to all children for all time.

The main driver of Pakistan s dramatic reduction in polio cases over the last two decades has been leadership at all levels.

Last year, India once thought to be the most difficult place to stop polio was declared polio free.

Until the polio virus is eradicated everywhere, no country is safe from reinfection.

But as the partners were preparing to declare Pakistan a polio free country the number of polio cases jumped to 93 in 2013.

Indeed, refusal to vaccinate accounts for 2 of the children who are missed. A recent smear campaign aimed at discrediting polio vaccination, in which several MPs publicly took part, has complicated matters further.

A recent smear campaign aimed at discrediting polio vaccination, in which several MPs publicly took part, has complicated matters further.

With a new, comprehensive plan to be introduced at the Summit, the world will have a clear roadmap for creating a polio free world by 2018. The plan works hand in hand with our overall efforts to raise immunization coverage against other diseases like measles, pneumonia, and rotavirus.

CAPE TOWN A world in which our children and their children grow up free from the threat of polio and other preventable diseases is a dream that everyone shares.

In 1994, Pakistan had roughly 25,000 cases of polio, many resulting in death or permanent disability.

When this ambitious eradication program was launched in 1988, polio was paralyzing more than 1,000 children every day in 125 countries on five continents.

Following through on polio eradication by extending the reach of vaccines to all children who need them is an opportunity for all of us to stand together on behalf of our global community.

International diplomatic efforts must therefore focus on achieving temporary ceasefires to bring in the most urgently needed help, such as polio vaccines for children.

But, thanks to intensive vaccination campaigns, there were only 58 cases of polio in the entire country last year down 70 from 2011.

Hundreds of volunteers like Sajida take part in the polio eradication campaign across Balochistan by vaccinating children under five years of age.

The success to date of the polio eradication program clearing a huge swathe of the earth of an ancient scourge demonstrates what can be achieved when simple technology is used effectively.

There is no excuse for millions of deaths from malaria, AIDS, TB, polio, measles, diarrhea, or respiratory infections, or for so many women and infants to die in or after childbirth.

More importantly, Rotary s leadership on polio offers a more general lesson in the fight against extreme poverty, hunger, and disease.

India, polio free for the last two years, is well aware that lasting domestic success depends on eradication efforts elsewhere.

Through collective support for polio eradication, health ministries now have the knowledge, the maps, the staff and the will of millions of volunteers to do even more.