Saudi Arabia on Sunday pledged$ 500 million to a polio vaccination initiative that counts the Bill &, Melinda Gates Foundation ( B&, MGF ) among its private-sector partners. The Gates Foundation agreed to set up an office in Riyadh, the country’s capital town, in trade.
” In Afghanistan and Pakistan, the last remaining influenza- endemic countries, we have seen major progress, but work remains to be done as the earth pushes towards making destruction possible. The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center’s supervisor-general, Dr. Abdullah A. al-Rabeeah, said the Saudi Arabian government’s commitment to further the development of cooperation and creativity needed to eliminate this disease.
” Along with our colleagues, the Bill &, Melinda Gates Foundation ( B&, MGF), the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, the Islamic Development Bank and important countries across the region, our help will not only aim to stop polio but to also improve health systems in these places”, Dr. albert- Rabeeah said as the vow was announced.
” Polio is a horrific disease that deserves to be in the history books once and for all. I am proud to see the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, together with partners across the Middle East, step up to help deliver more polio vaccines, measles immunisations, and other vital health services to millions of children every year”, Bill Gates said in response.
At a time when there are numerous crises around the world, Gates stated,” This global health investment will help strengthen and build more resilient health systems and communities.”
The World Economic Forum ( WEF ) held a two-day meeting in Riyadh to discuss potential international cooperation in the area of “global challenges,” including polio. The meeting’s main concern was the projection for” subdued” growth in all of the world in 2024, which was a result of the Wuhan coronavirus’ and depressing post-pandemic recovery’s” slowest half-decade of GDP growth in 30 years.”
His Excellency Faisal Alibrahim, Saudi Minister of Economy and Planning, welcomes global leaders to Riyadh for the World Economic Forum Special Meeting on Global Collaboration, Growth and Energy for Development, April 29, 2024. ( AETOSWire via AP )
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative ( GPEI), which is coming up about$ 1.2 billion short of its$ 4.8 billion budget for the next three years, is one of six private sector partners. Since 2000, when the Wuhan coronavirus epidemic first started, GPEI has consistently missed its funding and vaccination goals.
Despite this funding shortfall, GPEI says its efforts have reduced polio cases worldwide by 99 percent since it was founded in 1988 and two of the three known “wild poliovirus” strains ( WPV ) have been completely eliminated. GPEI describes its current program as the” Polio Endgame Strategy”, with the goal of effectively eliminating the last strain, WPV1, by 2026.
Gates complained last week that the global economic slowdown,” complacency” about polio among developed nations, and the unstable security situation in the worst polio hotspots were cutting into donations.
” It’s not guaranteed that we will succeed. I feel very strongly that we can succeed, but it’s been difficult”, he said.
People might be urging me to give up if we’re still here ten years from now. But I do n’t think we will be. If things go well, we’ll be done in three years”, he added.
B&, MGF’s deal with Saudi Arabia could be politically significant, in addition to its financial benefits, because two of the worst remaining pockets of polio are in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Insight from Saudi Arabia as a leading Muslim nation might help in securing those regions for vaccination efforts.
On Monday, the Taliban junta that governs Afghanistan announced a new polio vaccination campaign with the ostensible goal of inoculating 10.72 million children under five over the course of the next four days. Two provinces that are currently experiencing inclement weather are scheduled to receive another round of vaccinations at a later time.
” Together with our partners, we are committed to eradicating polio from Afghanistan. According to Taliban health minister Dr. Qalandar Ibaad,” we will work tirelessly and keep polio vaccination campaigns and complementary health services going until we reach the goal of fully eradicating polio.”
In a tacit way acknowledging that such local authorities occasionally tell their followers that vaccination causes infertility or that the vaccination technicians are hostile foreign agents, Ibaad’s ministry pointedly asked tribal elders and religious leaders to cooperate with the vaccination program. Up until late 2021, when the United Nations persuaded them, the Taliban actually outlawed door-to-door vaccination campaigns.
Despite receiving 100 rounds of vaccinations over the previous ten years, Pakistan saw a troubling resurgence of WPV1. Although the distribution pattern suggests there are more unreported infections in Pakistan’s remote and dangerous regions, particularly Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) along the Afghan border, despite the relatively low number of new reported cases.
KPK is home to at least half of Pakistan’s known polio cases, and in some cases, all of the polio cases have been reported there. Many residents think that immunization is a plot by the West to make Muslims infertile and reduce their population. The rapid spread of diseases is attributed to poor sanitation and malnutrition, while constant terrorist violence makes medical expeditions challenging.
Nigeria, the third country that has publicly declared the elimination of polio in 2020, has the third-recognized polio-endemic nation, which last year saw a variant strain start to spread among children in remote villages. Due to the new strain’s resistance to previous inoculations, a new vaccination program using fractional inactivated poliovirus was introduced in 2023.
Global health officials have been tracking the spread of non-polio enteroviruses, which are more common in young children and have paralysis similar to polio in severe cases. The” complacency” Gates complained about has slowed the response to these enteroviruses because the majority of young patients in developed countries recover without any significant lingering effects thanks to high- quality diets and medical care.
