World Health Summit on Polio Eradication

World Health Summit on Polio Eradication
Source: DTE
GS II: Policies and Developmental Studies

What is discussed under World Health Summit on Polio Eradication?

At the World Health Summit on October 18, 2022, global leaders agreed to donate Rs 19 crore to eradicate polio.

The World Health Summit is a one-of-a-kind worldwide strategic platform for global health.
It is held yearly in Berlin and brings together stakeholders from across the world from politics, research, the commercial sector, and civil society to set the agenda for a healthier future by inspiring new solutions for greater health and well-being for everyone.
The World Health Summit was formed in 2009 to commemorate Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin’s 300th anniversary.
It is typically attended by the German Chancellor, the French President, the President of the European Commission, and the World Health Organization’s Director-General.
Axel R. Pries, Dean of Charité, is the President of the World Health Summit.

The World Health Assembly passed a resolution in 1988 calling for the abolition of polio globally.
Photo by Kristine Wook on Unsplash
National governments lead the Global Polio Eradication Initiative with six core partners:
1. World Health Organization (WHO)
2. Rotary International
3. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
4. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
5. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
6. Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance
The GPEI’s mission is to eradicate and confine all wild, vaccine-related, and Sabin polioviruses so that no child suffers from paralytic poliomyelitis again.
GPEI has assisted governments in making significant progress in safeguarding the world population from this crippling illness.
As a result, since the GPEI’s inception, the global incidence of polio has dropped by 99.9%.
GPEI’s Four Pillars of Eradication:
1. Routine immunization
2. Supplementary immunization
3. Surveillance
4. Targeted “mop-up” campaigns

The financing will help to overcome the final barriers to polio eradication, vaccinate 370 million children per year for the next five years, and maintain disease surveillance in 50 countries.
The effort required $4.8 billion to properly implement its 2022-2026 agenda.
If fully financed, the policy has the potential to save up to $33.1 billion in healthcare costs this century when compared to the cost of suppressing epidemics.
In addition to the money, a group of over 3,000 important scientists, clinicians, and public health specialists from around the world issued a proclamation approving the 2022-2026 approach.
It urged funders to remain dedicated to eradication and to guarantee that GPEI is adequately financed.
Hundreds of millions of doses of new oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) have now been delivered in 23 countries, and field data continue to indicate its promise as a tool for more sustainably stopping outbreaks of type 2 circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPV).
Only two nations have wild poliovirus endemicity: Pakistan and Afghanistan.

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