Nigeria Advances the Fight Against Polio
With continued hard work and investment the world is on a path toward something pretty incredible, the eradication of polio.
In the past two decades, polio cases around the world have been reduced by 99 percent. If we can get rid of the last 1 percent, polio will become the second major infectious disease, after smallpox, that has ever been completely eliminated. There are still gaps in funding for polio eradication, and new outbreaks could reverse some of the progress made so far. But if polio is eliminated, never again will a child be crippled by this terrible virus.
We have a chance to get there because of some great efforts, particularly by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, which involves the World Health Organization, Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Our foundation is very involved in supporting polio immunization campaigns and other efforts to educate parents and communities about the importance of immunization. We’re also supporting work to improve polio surveillance and to develop better vaccines and anti-poliovirus drugs.
