Nigeria and four other African nations are to get $15 million from Rotary International as part of funds, which have been set aside by the global charity organisation to keep the continent and the whole world free from polio.
Rotary announced a $35 million grant on Wednesday, to support global efforts to end polio, including the $15 million support to Nigeria ($5.5m), Cameroon ($1.6m), Chad ($2m), Ethiopia ($4.1m), and Somalia ($1.8m).
Additional funds are also earmarked to support polio eradication efforts in endemic and at-risk countries, such as Pakistan ($11.4m), Afghanistan ($6m), Iraq ($1.6m) and India ($600,000).
Furthermore, about $350,000 from the Rotary’s global polio eradication fund will be dedicated to polio research.
In 2015, Africa proved a hub of historic progress against the paralysing disease, where Nigeria, the last polio-endemic country in Africa, was removed from the World Health Organisation’s list of endemic countries in September.
This followed a one-year period without a new case of the wild virus reported in the country, which is Africa’s largest economy and most populous country. The last wild polio case on the African continent was reported in August 2014.
“We are closer than ever to achieving a polio-free world, and to ensure that no child ever again suffers the devastating effects of this disease, we must all ensure that the necessary funds and political will are firmly in place in 2016, said Michael McGovern, chair of Rotary International’s PolioPlus Committee.”
Rotary brings together a global network of volunteer leaders dedicated to tackling the world’s most pressing humanitarian challenges.
It also connects 1.2 million members of more than 34,000 Rotary clubs in over 200 countries and geographical areas.
At the moment, only two countries are said to be reporting a single strain of the wild poliovirus. The countries are Pakistan and Afghanistan.
To sustain this healthcare progress and protect all children from polio, experts say that about $1.5 billion is urgently needed.
“However, without full funding and political commitment, the disease could return to previously polio-free countries, putting children everywhere at risk,” warned Rotary.
Rotary launched its polio immunization program, PolioPlus, in 1985 and, in 1988, became a spearheading partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative with the WHO, UNICEF, and the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, which was later joined by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Since the initiative was launched, the incidence of polio has plummeted by more than 99.9 percent; from about 350,000 cases a year to 70 confirmed episodes to date in 2015.
Rotary has contributed more than $1.5 billion and countless volunteer hours to the fight against polio worldwide.
Through 2018, Rotary says that every dollar it commits towards polio eradication will be matched by a ratio of two-to-one by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in order to raise $35 million a year.
