An international campaign to eradicate polio received a major boost with the announcement that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation would give 100 million dollars to support intensified immunisation in the handful of countries where the virus remains active.
The grant went to the Rotary Foundation, an organisation of service clubs with over 1.2 million members worldwide, and its PolioPlus Programme.
"It's a very large grant for us. Certainly not the largest we've ever made, but on the other hand this is perhaps one of the largest possibilities we've had to deal with: ultimate eradication of this horror from the lives of children. There's almost no figure that is too high to invest in that possible end," William Gates Sr., co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, told IPS.
Since the Rotary Foundation started their programme to eradicate polio in 1985, according to their own figures two billion children have been immunised, another five million children have been spared disability and more than 250,000 lives were saved from the debilitating and often deadly disease.
Considering that it has collected a total of 633 million dollars since the beginning of the polio project in 1985, the grant of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation alone represents over 15% of the Rotary Foundation's budget in the last 22 years together.
"So necessary is this infusion of funds to the polio eradication initiative that Rotary will spend the initial 100 million dollars in direct support of polio immunisation activities in 2008," said Dr. Robert Scott, chair of the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International and its PolioPlus Programme.
Last four countries
The acute viral infectious disease still paralyses sufferers in four countries. Despite major efforts in recent years, Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan still reported some 2,000 cases of polio last year. However, this number is in contrast with the 350,000 children paralysed worldwide every year when Rotary first began their work.
"99% of the job is done," Scott said.
Still, public health experts agree that it is the final one percent that is most difficult and expensive.
"That's why this grand grant comes at a critical moment," said Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organisation (WHO). "Polio eradication will be a perpetual gift to all future generations of children who can grow up free from this crippling disease. We are closer to this goal than ever before."
Funding gap
The funding gap to a polio-free world, according to the Rotary Foundation, is still 650 million dollars. After receiving the Gates Foundation grant, Scott hopes to mobilise additional resources in order to solve this problem.
"This is of course by far, by far, by a hundred times almost, the biggest grant we've ever received," Scott told IPS. "We have had some smaller grants of five, 10 and 15 million dollars from various organisations, but a hundred million dollars takes our breath away."
"We are extremely proud that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation thought of us as a suitable organisation and an organisation that can deal with such a large sum and deal with it efficiently due to our previous experience in this programme of polio eradication," he said.
Although they are the last four countries on the earth with cases of polio, according to the WHO, Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan are all on track to achieve eradication. But every country is facing its own unique problems.
Challenges ahead
"In terms of numbers of cases, actually, we are seeing the smallest number in Pakistan and Afghanistan. But the challenge there is getting our healthcare workers to reach every child in every household," Chan told IPS.
She said "given the security situation there it's sometimes quite difficult, but I'm happy to report that our colleagues at different levels get agreements and the support of leaders, Taliban leaders as well as the government, to give us some days, we call it days of tranquility, whereby our healthcare workers could reach as many children as possible."
For security and infrastructural reasons, sometimes it is hard to reach every child in regions that are prone to polio. But according to Chan, WHO is now able to reach close to 100,000 children who had not been reached in the last two years.
The situation in India and Nigeria is worse, but Chan notes that "in both cases, India and Nigeria are actually showing improvements since my urge to the governments this February to put in additional efforts."
Despite all the efforts to finally eradicate polio by the Rotary Foundation and cooperating institutions, Scott added many people believe polio is not that big of a problem anymore.
"Indeed, most of the world is, thanks to our combined efforts, polio-free, but the disease is still threatening children in some developing countries," he said. "Because polio is a virus that moves from child to child, it is capable of reemerging anywhere in the world – especially if we don't follow through and eradicate this disease once and for all now."
By Philip Rouwenhorst
Source: http://southasia.oneworld.net/
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