Polio Eradication Strategy 2022-2026: Delivering on promises, extended to 2029 – World

executive summary

Thanks to the power of vaccines and decades of global cooperation, wild poliovirus has been nearly eradicated. But this virus remains a persistent enemy, leveraging factors such as security insecurity, humanitarian crises, continued underserved communities, and inconsistent access to people on the move. has been proven and continues to paralyze children today in some of the most vulnerable environments on earth.

Since 1988, when the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) was established, the number of children paralyzed by polio has decreased by 99.9%. Thanks to the collaboration and efforts of health workers, governments and partners around the world, more than 3 billion children have been vaccinated against polio, and 20 million people who would otherwise be paralyzed are walking today. (1)

Today, polio is a global threat to the delivery of health care and other basic services, from humanitarian crises in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Gaza Strip, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen to continuing insecurity in some regions. It persists in some of the most challenging environments. remote and underserved communities in Nigeria and Pakistan; In this context, GPEI continues to protect millions of children from paralysis each year and work toward the promise of a polio-free world. But the reality is that eradicating a disease means the closer the world gets to zero, the harder the effort becomes.

To face these challenges and eradicate polio, GPEI is refining its strategies and introducing innovative tools to reach every child in every community with polio vaccines and other lifesaving care. Masu.

In pursuit of that mission, GPEI is extending the timeline for eradication from 2026 to 2029 and implementing a combination of new and proven tactics to consistently reach all children. We are reviewing our program budget.

While the 2022-2026 polio eradication strategy is strong and eradication tactics are agile and adapting to changing realities, GPEI is stepping up implementation and building on track record to reach more children more consistently. It is clear that we need to improve. To eliminate wild poliovirus in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the program will strengthen cross-border collaboration to reach mobile populations and people living along the border. Work with new development partners to deliver polio vaccines alongside broader health interventions. Refine and strengthen post-campaign monitoring to identify missing children, adopt immediate corrective measures, and inform planning for subsequent rounds. Adjust activities according to local gender norms. Increase support for women vaccinators, planners, and supervisors. The program will also strengthen advocacy efforts to increase community and national ownership of eradication efforts, and adapt context-specific social and behavioral change communication strategies to address vaccine hesitancy. .

To permanently stop the spread of variant poliovirus type 2, the program will target four affected areas: rural areas where children are at the highest risk of contracting and spreading the virus; strengthen the focus on increasing immunization rates in the United States. Congo, northern Nigeria, south-central Somalia, and northern Yemen. At the same time, in countries where the virus is newly detected, GPEI will implement faster, larger and better vaccination campaigns to reach every child with the next generation vaccine, the new oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2). It's planned. Countries with sustained circulation will also implement targeted community action plans to reach children in the hardest-to-reach areas with vaccines and other life-saving care. In all situations, GPEI is integrating with and supporting essential immunization programs in a more strategic and systematic way. This research will set the stage to stop the remaining variants of poliovirus (types 1 and 3) by building herd immunity and strengthening immunization systems before oral vaccines are phased out.

Our dedicated, skilled, and gender-balanced teams are vital to high-risk communities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as they utilize geospatial technology to continuously reach remote communities along the Congo River in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. We are already driving new approaches, even building new partnerships to deliver health services. Somalia. A robust risk and performance monitoring framework now regularly guides programs, covering all aspects from fundraising and vaccine procurement to campaign planning and implementation.

With strengthened implementation, additional resources, and renewed focus from polio-affected governments, donors, and global supporters, the GPEI will protect the world's most vulnerable children and deliver on its historic promise. , we can eradicate polio forever.

The world still has a chance to end this devastating disease. Wild poliovirus transmission remains historically low compared to just 5 years ago, and cVDPV transmission has decreased significantly over the past 2 years. With support from GPEI, governments and health professionals have the creative tools and strategies they need to reach every child. However, with increasing political instability, conflict and misinformation, essential immunization programs and polio vaccination campaigns are struggling to sustain.

If high vaccination coverage against polio is not achieved and maintained, the risk of epidemics increases. This risk is starting to become a reality as long-time polio-free regions, such as the United States and United Kingdom, have recently seen cases of polio for the first time in decades. The window is rapidly closing as too many children are left unprotected.

Vaccination is one of public health's most powerful and cost-effective tools to prevent disease, disability, and death. Polio eradication could save the world an estimated US$33.1 billion in direct costs by 2100, compared to the costs of ongoing virus control and epidemic response (2, 3). If the world does not continue its eradication efforts, the epidemic will continue to grow and within 10 years will paralyze thousands of children each year. The costs for families to care for children paralyzed by polio are also high, especially when combined with the risk of the child losing their education or job. Failure to fulfill the mission of eradication now will incur both human and economic costs.

In today's climate, the role of the GPEI has never been more important. In addition to its primary goal of stopping polio, GPEI works in conjunction with other global health efforts to serve as a lifeline to essential health services for marginalized communities. Door-to-door polio vaccination campaigns are often the most frequent and, in some cases, the only point of contact between these communities and the formal health system. The program also operates one of the world's largest disease surveillance systems. Polio staff and these vaccination and surveillance systems have contributed to the fight against other health emergencies such as measles, Ebola, coronavirus disease, and most recently mpox. An investment in polio eradication is therefore an investment in these critical basic services and collective global health security.

The Government and partners have already committed generous US$4.5 billion to GPEI's current strategy. Providing the remaining US$2.4 billion needed by 2029 to the program is essential to capitalizing on the tremendous progress made to date and preventing an exponential rebound of polio around the world. The world must act now.