The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) announced the “difficult decision” to extend the timelines needed to achieve polio eradication. This decision, made by the Polio Oversight Board (POB) in July 2024, was shared in October 2024 with an update to funding requirements. Although GPEI recognised the “unprecedented progress” made so far, it highlighted the danger of falling into an “unacceptable future”, demanding collaboration and support for the next stages of eradication efforts.
Progress against polio
GPEI commented that “for more than three and a half decades” it has been supporting governments and health workers to make “unprecedented progress toward the promise of a polio-free world”. Through this work, more than 20 million people are “walking who would otherwise have been paralysed by this dreadful disease”. “Billions” of children have benefitted from lifesaving immunisations, and five out of six WHO Regions are free from wild poliovirus.
Closing the gaps
With broad global success, the programme is largely now “concentrated in some of the most complicated and fragile settings in which to deliver basic healthcare”. It faces “serious”, from “persistent violence to climate emergencies”. Indeed, the transmission of polio in conflict-affected areas in Gaza, Sudan, and Yemen, provides a “stark reminder” that “where conflict debilitates health and sanitation systems, polio will inevitably appear” unless eradication of all forms of the virus can be achieved.
Extended timelines
In recognition of the continued challenges, the GPEI’s POB decided to extend the timelines needed to achieve polio eradication to the end of 2027 (wild poliovirus) and the end of 2029 (type 2 variant poliovirus). The decision, made in July 2024, was informed by “critical analysis and expert consultations”. The consequence of this extension is a need for further financial resources.
In October 2024, the POB determined that the total funding needs of the extended 2022-2029 strategic period are US$6.9 billion; this is an increase from the US$4.8 billion projected for the 2022-2026 strategic period. Donors have already committed an “incredible” US$4.5 billion, leaving US$2.4 billion “urgently needed”. The funds will enable the programme to make “tactical shifts”, allowing GPEI to:
- Reach more children with polio vaccines by working with polio-affected country leaders to strengthen programme implementation
- Deploy innovative tools like novel vaccines and surveillance methods to further strengthen outbreak response
- Improve accountability at all levels, from global leadership to field managers
- Work with routine immunisation programmes by integrating polio services where possible
- Deepen relationships by strengthening community engagement
These “shifts” are driven by partners’ expertise and a “programme-wide commitment to double down on the toughest but most critical challenges”.
GPEI warns that shortcomings in funding or executing these efforts would have “serious consequences”.
“Without dedicated eradication efforts, within a decade, many thousands of children around the world could once again be paralysed or die from polio each year. This is an unacceptable future.”
The importance of donor and polio-affected country governments supported is highlighted as central in reaching all children with lifesaving vaccines and strengthening health systems in the process.
“With strengthened support and collaboration, together we can deliver a world where all children, families, and communities are forever free from polio.”
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