Australia will support worldwide efforts to tackle the last remaining cases of polio through funding for vaccines, support for monitoring outbreaks and support for responding to cases of polio - a debilitating and potentially fatal disease that can be easily prevented through vaccination.
Australia has pledged $50 million to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative to support worldwide efforts to tackle the last remaining cases of polio.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard made the announcement at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting at Perth on Saturday 29 October.
Vaccination is one of the cheapest and most cost-effective ways to protect children from life-threatening diseases. Many of AusAID's health programs support partner countries' routine immunisation systems, which help protect children against preventable childhood illnesses, such as measles, whooping cough and polio. Increasing routine immunisation around the world has helped reduce the number of child deaths from 12.4 million in 1990 to 7.6 million in 2010.
In 1988, countries around the world signed up to eradicate polio by the year 2000. At that time, polio paralysed more than 1000 children worldwide every day. Since then, as a result of routine immunisation and eradication efforts, the number of polio cases throughout the world has reduced by 99 per cent. However, the disease remains endemic in Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan and has become re-established in Angola, Chad and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Outbreaks are also occurring in other countries.
In 2010, there were around 1,350 cases of polio in the world. This builds on Australia's existing funding for polio activities and our ongoing support for routine immunisation. Eliminating the last one per cent of cases will be difficult and will require strong commitment from affected countries and donors like Australia. Only one disease – smallpox – has ever been successfully eradicated.
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is a public-private partnership, with the goal of eradicating polio worldwide. It is led by national governments, in partnership with the World Health Organization, Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and UNICEF. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is also a partner.