October 24th is World Polio Day.
Millions of people who have been part of the fight to eradicate polio are reflecting on the struggles and victories of the past year—and taking a deep breath ready for the year to come. It is an occasion that we should all celebrate, as the generation who will bear witness to the end of this disease.
I am lucky to be a part of this incredible movement, as someone who has worked in polio eradication for 20 years, and now as director of the team working to eradicate polio at the World Health Organization. Over twenty million people have worked and volunteered around the world to stop polio from paralysing children over the life of this initiative. Increasingly, their jobs are not easy. The few countries where polio remains are some of the most challenging places in the world to deliver health services. In some places, healthcare workers put their lives at risk to make sure that polio vaccines find their way to the children who need them most.
But until every child everywhere is protected, we must not stop what we are doing. During one polio campaign in India, I visited a family where a child had been stricken with polio. This child had not even been given a name, because chances of survival are so poor in some communities that children are only named when they make it past key birthdays. This is a stark example of what polio takes from the children it affects in the poorest communities around the world: the chance to grow up, to play—even the right to a name. And all that can be prevented using just a simple vaccine.
Celebrating World Polio Day is all the more important because of the challenges we still face. There are many things from the past year to be grateful for. Here are the six things that I am celebrating.
1. We are 99.9% of the way there
Back in 1988 when the Global Polio Eradication Initiative was started thanks to Rotary International, over 350,000 children were being paralysed for life by polio, every single year. Since World Polio Day 2014 we have seen just over 150 cases of paralysis. While any case of polio is too many, we are closer to a polio free world than we have ever been before, and that is worth celebrating.
2. The year when 3 became 2
In September, the GPEI celebrated two major milestones. Three strains of wild polio became two when wild poliovirus type 2 was declared eradicated by the Global Certification Commission, with no cases since 1999. And to add to the good news, three polio endemic countries became two, with Nigeria celebrating its official removal from the list of polio endemic countries.
3. Heroic frontline workers
The people who battle polio on the frontlines are the lifeblood of the polio eradication programme. We owe everything to their bravery, their vigilance and their commitment. They go further than anyone—vaccinating the children of one more household at the end of a long day, because they see first hand the devastating impact of polio in their communities. Their contribution should be celebrated every day, but today most of all.
4. Political commitment
In 2015, the member states of the World Health Organization renewed their commitment to seeing polio eradication through to the end in a World Health Assembly resolution. We have seen time and time again that the commitment of governments provides the tipping point for countries fighting the poliovirus - in Egypt, in India, and now in Nigeria. At the Global Citizen Festival in New York this September, the Prime Minister of Malta Joseph Muscat announced that polio will be on the agenda of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in November, where 53 world leaders will come together. With the renewed political commitment of the member states behind us, we have more of a chance than ever of having a polio-free world within our grasp.
5. We know what we need to do to achieve a polio-free world
During my time working to eradicate polio, I have watched the programme grow and develop as it overcame tremendous challenges. New vaccines have been developed; new strategies have enabled us to reach more and more children; more and more partners have contributed their knowledge and expertise. While there is still much to do and more to learn, we know more than we ever have before about how to stop polio in its last remaining strongholds.
6. More people are engaged than ever before
At the Global Citizen Festival this year, more than 60,000 of you stood up to fight poverty and inequality around the world. Polio is now a question of equity, with the virus remaining in communities where sanitation and hygiene systems are poor and health systems are weak. I ask you today to keep on adding your voice to those people calling out for the end of this threat to children, because it makes all the difference—for us, and for those children who remain vulnerable to polio.
This piece was written by Dr. Hamid Jafari, director of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative at the World Health Organization.
Happy World Polio Day!