Polio News No. 37

Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI)'s 37th edition of Polio News reports on quarters 1 and 2 of 2011. Highlights of the issue include:

• In its April 20 2011 report, GPEI's Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) calls the US$665 million funding gap through end-2012 the "single greatest threat to the GPEI's success".
• Economic benefits of GPEI are estimated at US$40-50 billion.
• Bill Gates' January 2011 call to the donor community has been answered by the United Kingdom (UK), which doubled its current contribution to polio eradication for 2011-12 in a matching grant, and the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.

• Pakistan rolled out a National Emergency Action Plan 2011 (NEAP) on January 24 2011 during a launch ceremony in Islamabad that featured President Zardari giving polio vaccine to a child. In line with the NEAP strategy, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is placing more communications staff at provincial and grassroots levels, focusing on the highest risk union councils.
• Dr Bruce Aylward, former Director of the GPEI, was invited to speak at TED2011 to discuss his current work at the World Health Organization (WHO), where his focus is on elevating polio eradication to the centre of a new cluster designed to facilitate national and international cooperation in order to provide healthcare to the most vulnerable and hardest-to-reach populations.
• Governors of the 11 provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) met on April 25 2011 and issued a Declaration of Engagement to deploy the powers of their offices to eradicate polio and strengthen the Expanded Programme on Immunization.
• In Angola, polio partners are joining efforts by, for instance, galvanising the support of the country's president, who has a plan to ensure the full engagement of provincial governors in implementing the country's emergency plan to eradicate polio.

• During the week of February 23, Rotary International celebrated its 106th anniversary by illuminating monuments worldwide with Rotary's pledge to "End Polio Now".
• The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) produced a 2011 calendar on milestones in polio eradication which depict key polio dates based on cartoons to provoke thought and discussion.
• Rotary International's "This Close" campaign centres around a website that enables people to create a personalised ad supporting the effort to end polio and then to share it through email and social networks.

• Bivalent oral polio vaccine "is having a dramatic effect on both remaining forms of wild poliovirus - particularly on wild poliovirus type 3 (WPV3)."
• Ventilators are helping Congolese patients survive polio.
• In Rukhsar, India, one child's paralysis due to polio triggered India's emergency response.
• WHO has updated polio immunisation recommendations for travellers.
• Looking towards the second half of 2011...

This newsletter is supported by WHO in association with Rotary International, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and UNICEF.