According to the WHO, the funding will support global efforts to overcome recent obstacles to polio control, vaccinate 370 million children a year over the next five years and continue disease surveillance in 50 countries.
“The discovery of new cases of polio this year in countries that were previously free of the disease is a clear reminder that if we don’t achieve our goal of eradicating polio everywhere, it could occur worldwide,” wrote WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The WHO statement pointed out that the decision to allocate $2.6 billion to the fight against polio responded to the call of more than 3,000 scientists and health experts from 115 countries who called on the world to fully fund a post-polio disease control strategy. cases are being discovered again.
Wild poliomyelitis is endemic in only two countries: Pakistan and Afghanistan. This year, however, there have been 29 cases of infection elsewhere in the world, including new outbreaks in the United States, Israel and the United Kingdom.
“No place is safe until poliomyelitis is eradicated everywhere. As long as the virus still exists somewhere in the world, it can spread – also in our country. We now have a real chance to completely eradicate polio and we want to take advantage of it.” together,” she concluded. World Health Summit Svenja Schulze, Head of the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, co-organizer of the meeting.
Among national governments, the most generous is the United States, which has pledged $114 million to fight polio. Germany wants to spend the equivalent of about 71 million dollars for this purpose, and France – more than 49 million dollars. 150 million dollars were offered by the international organization Rotary International.
Poliomyelitis is an infectious viral disease, mainly associated with childhood disease, but also dangerous for adolescents and adults. Symptoms include digestive system ailments, fever, headache, and sometimes meningitis is also seen.
In 1-2 percent Poliomyelitis patients can take the form of paralysis, which can lead to muscle paralysis and, as a result, can lead to paresis, motor disability, paralysis or respiratory failure.
The World Health Summit brought together heads of state, numerous ministers from around the world, heads of international agencies, representatives of the G7 and G20, the European Union and the African Union, as well as civil society and private sector leaders. .
