World Looks Anxiously To Pakistan, Afghanistan And Nigeria To Eradicate Polio

Devin Thorpe

Polio, once a global monster, is now a cornered rat, lashing out in hopes of repopulating. Reduced 99.9 percent from an average number of cases around 400,000 thirty years ago, the number of global polio cases has been cut to around 400 annually. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative hopes to see the final case of polio either late this year or early next year. All polio cases, regardless of where they are found, now originate from three countries: Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria. You can count the number of cases this year in Afghanistan or Nigeria on your fingers; the end of polio there is clearly within reach.

All three countries have been impacted by conflict in recent years, making the battle against polio at this critical stage challenging. The battle is so pitched that the World Health Organization or WHO, declared a “public health emergency” in an effort to garner greater cooperation among countries to prevent the spread of polio, especially from the three endemic countries.

Rotary, one of the partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, along with the CDC, WHO and UNICEF with tremendous financial support from The Gates Foundation, has brought the three national Polio Plus Committee heads from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria to its global headquarters in Evanston, Illinois this week. Forbes has received an exclusive opportunity to visit with them live on Tuesday, July 22, 2014 at 4:10 PM Eastern. Aziz Memon of Pakistan, Dr. Abdulrahman Olatunji Funsho of Nigeria and Mohammad Ishaq Niazmand of Afghanistan will join us then.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/devinthorpe/2014/07/21/forbes-exclusive-world-looks-anxiously-to-pakistan-afghanistan-and-nigeria-to-eradicate-polio/