Global leaders have confirmed $US2.6 billion ($4.1 billion) in funding at the World Health Summit to end polio, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.
The funding will go towards the Global Polio Eradication Initiative's (GPEI) 2022-2026 Strategy to end the highly infectious viral disease.
In a statement, WHO said it would:
Vaccinate 370 million children annually over the next five years
Continue disease surveillance across 50 countries
Support global efforts to overcome the final hurdles to polio eradication
"The new detections of polio this year in previously polio-free countries are a stark reminder that if we do not deliver our goal of ending polio everywhere, it may resurge globally," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a statement.
In addition to the funding for GPEI, a group of more than 3,000 influential scientists, physicians and public health experts from around the world released a declaration endorsing the 2022-2026 Strategy.
The group pointed to new tactics contained in the program's strategy, like the continued roll-out of the novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2), that made them confident of GPEI's ability to end polio.
The group further asserted that support for eradication significantly strengthened immunisation systems and pandemic preparedness around the world.
How many cases of polio have been recorded in 2022?
The WHO said 29 cases had been recorded so far in 2022, including a small number of new detections in South-East Africa linked to a strain originating in Pakistan. It said six cases were recorded in 2021.
Wild poliovirus is endemic in just two countries — Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The WHO said outbreaks of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV), which could emerge in places where not enough people had been immunised, were continuing to spread across parts of Africa, Asia and Europe.
“No place is safe until polio has been eradicated everywhere," said Svenja Schulze, Germany's Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development.
"As long as the virus still exists somewhere in the world, it can spread," she said.
"We now have a realistic chance to eradicate polio completely, and we want to jointly seize that chance."
ABC with Reuters
