Closing the final gaps: WHA discussions highlight the path to a polio-free world - GPEI

Countries: World, Afghanistan, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Pakistan, Somalia, South Sudan, Yemen Source: Global Polio Eradication Initiative Did you know that in 2025, the GPEI immunized more than 350 million children multiple times, including more than 55 million children in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and more than 600 000 children against all odds in the Gaza Strip? Despite these tremendous numbers, we know what the ‘final gap’ for polio eradication looks like. It is not an abstract concept, but the remaining children who will need to be reached and vaccinated. At this year’s World Health Assembly, Member States and partners focused not only on progress made, but on what remains to be done: closing the final gaps in access, coverage and financing to achieve a polio-free world. Amid discussions on a broad range of global public health priorities, including the ongoing emergency Ebola outbreak response in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, pandemic preparedness and sustainable financing for health systems, delegates repeatedly returned to one central message on polio: the world stands closer than ever to eradication, but the final phase will require sustained political commitment, operational discipline and continued solidarity. In his opening address to the Assembly, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus underscored WHO’s commitment to continue to work with partners to achieve “our long-held dream of eradicating polio.” For more than three decades, polio eradication has remained one of the very few public health efforts supported by every government. That commitment was strongly reaffirmed throughout this year’s Assembly, alongside a stark reminder that polio remains a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), now one of only two globally, alongside the Ebola outbreak. “At this stage, th...

Original source: Relief Web