Posted on January 22, 2009

Gates Foundation, Foreign Governments Commit $630 Million to Fight Polio

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced a joint commitment of $630 million with the British and German governments to help eradicate polio.

The commitment includes a $255 million challenge grant from Gates to Rotary International, which Rotary will match with $100 million raised by its members over the next three years. In addition, the United Kingdom and Germany will commit $150 million and $130 million, respectively, to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) over the next five years. Rotary, in partnership with the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and UNICEF, spearheaded the creation of GPEI.

The new grants will support a range of activities, including National Immunization Days that target unvaccinated children under the age of five; supplemental immunization activities focused on providing extra vaccinations to children in high-risk areas; research into new vaccines and ways to ensure they are available to vulnerable children; and surveillance activities designed to detect polio outbreaks and measure progress against the disease.

Despite recent large gifts from Canada, Russia, the United States, and other donors, GPEI faces a $340 million funding shortfall for 2009-10 that must be closed if eradication of the disease is to be achieved. Polio has been completely eliminated in the Americas, the Western Pacific, and Europe, but the wild polio virus persists in Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan, and cases exported from those countries threaten other developing nations.

"Rotarians, government leaders, and health professionals have made a phenomenal commitment so polio afflicts only a small number of the world's children," said Bill Gates, co-chair of the Gates Foundation. "However, complete elimination of the polio virus is difficult and will continue to be difficult for a number of years. Rotary in particular has inspired my own personal commitment to get deeply involved in achieving eradication."