The UK is leading the final global push to eliminate polio around the world for good, International Development Secretary Priti Patel announced on 4 August 2017.
Polio was wiped out in the UK in the 1980s and there are more than 100,000 British survivors today. Globally, the wild polio virus still exists in Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan, with 8 new cases this year.
It is likely that the last new case of polio will be diagnosed this year, paving the way for the world to be certified polio-free in 2020.
Ms. Patel has announced UK support to lead the last push needed to end polio. This will immunise 45 million children against the disease each year until 2020 – that is 80 children a minute.
Britain has had a long standing commitment to making polio the second human disease in history to be eradicated, after smallpox. As a direct result of the UK’s support to global efforts, which began in 1988, more than 16 million people are walking today who would have otherwise been paralyzed, and the number of people contracting the disease has been reduced by 99.9%.
Over 100,000 people are still living with #Polio in the UK – meet two of them, Sue & David who are campaigning to #EndPolio for good! pic.twitter.com/oWRWeb3sqj — DFID (@DFID_UK) August 4, 2017
Over 100,000 people are still living with #Polio in the UK – meet two of them, Sue & David who are campaigning to #EndPolio for good! pic.twitter.com/oWRWeb3sqj
— DFID (@DFID_UK) August 4, 2017
The UK’s support will immunise up to 45 million children against the disease each year until 2020 – that is 80 children a minute.It will also help to save more than 65,000 children from paralysis every year.
The support will help over 15,000 polio workers reach every last child with life-saving vaccines and other health interventions and will help to save almost £2 billion globally by 2035, as health care systems are freed up from treating polio victims.
