Polio Eradication Update.

Posted on Feb 12, 2017
 
 
A global public-private partnership has reduced the poliovirus caseload by 99.9% over the last 30 years, but there’s still plenty of work to do. Here are 6 key numbers. (For the complete article, click the link)
 
     *  3 countries where polio is still endemic. 
 
In 1988, Rotary was joined in the effort by WHO, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, UNICEF (and more recently the Gates Foundation) to create the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI).
 
Today the virus is limited to a few areas in just three countries – Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.
 
     *155: the number of countries involved in largest coordinated vaccine switch in history
 
There are three different strains of the poliovirus. Once a strain is eliminated (type 2 was officially eradicated in September 2015), we have to match our vaccines to the remaining strains to protect children globally.
 
      •  $60 billion: the cost of infectious disease epidemics per year
      •  20 million: the number of volunteers participating
      •  $1.5 billion: the amount needed to eradicate polio
      •  4: the factor by which health savings exceed the cost of polio eradication