Collaboration for Eradication: Our Last Steps to Ending Polio

In a time of political and economic upheaval, it can seem nearly impossible to find common ground. It can feel like the tenets of worldwide collaboration to solve global challenges are crumbling rather than growing. We come from two vibrant, complex countries whose public health systems see the power and impact of global cooperation every day as we strive to rid our nations of polio once and for all. We must not lose sight of this progress, and we must celebrate what, through collaboration, we have continued to achieve.   

Polio eradication is a massive undertaking, one that cannot be taken lightly or accomplished alone. It requires leaders and countries worldwide to move in lockstep toward that shared goal. While it might be taxing at times, progress is possible with participation. Last week, leaders from around the world gathered at the Rotary International Convention in Atlanta to pledge US $1.2 billion to polio eradication efforts. This group comprises leaders of countries both free of polio and, like our home countries of Pakistan and Nigeria, those that are still battling the grip of this preventable disease. Their unity in commitment and mission demonstrates the importance of global collaboration to address issues that ultimately affect us all.  

The financial commitments from these leaders will help continue the work of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) – a partnership comprised of Rotary, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The GPEI is another example of the positive results that come from collective actions by parties and groups around the world. When Rotary and its partners began the campaign to eradicate polio in 1985, the disease paralyzed about 350,000 children a year – nearly 1,000 children every day. Fast forward to today, and polio is now on the brink of eradication, endemic only in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria, and with only five cases reported worldwide thus far in 2017.   

The GPEI demonstrates how concrete solutions and widespread cooperation can transcend borders and cultures. Take for instance India’s eradication efforts, and subsequent successes, which provided a direct blueprint for implementation in Nigeria. Once regarded as the toughest place to eradicate polio, with sanitation challenges and high population density, India is now polio free. Keen to strengthen crossborder coordination, India sent delegations of Surveillance Medical Officers for deployment in Nigeria, bolstering eradication efforts in that country, as well as accounting for the safety of their people in preventing a future outbreak. The support from India, and its willingness to share learnings and resources, has helped bring Nigeria to the brink of eradication, and helps us continue to tackle the remaining challenges we face today.  

In Pakistan, Rotary and its partners have brought polio vaccination to some of our most marginalized populations over the last three decades. Currently, we’re working to reach children in high-risk mobile populations regularly crossing the borders between Pakistan and Afghanistan with the polio vaccine. This work helps to identify and map the routes, areas of origin, duration, and seasonality of travel of these populations. That information is transferred through inter-regional coordination, forming a more comprehensive picture of movement and making vaccination distribution a clearer, more streamlined process. It is this level of cross-border cooperation that ensures that we reach every single child with the polio vaccine.  

In times of strife, we often need to lean on our neighbors for support and aid. No matter how near or far, polio has a few remaining strongholds in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria that require cooperation and immediate attention. Disease cannot be contained to any country’s borders. It transcends all boundaries, real or imaginary, putting us all at risk. In fact, without immediate and concerted action, we could see 200,000 new cases of polio every year. Today’s commitment from so many nations to fund and work together in the pursuit of eradication proves we must collaborate and take action against the grips of this disease – and that together, we are unstoppable.