The Global Polio Eradication Initiative on Thursday announced plans to launch an Emergency
Action Plan aimed at boosting vaccination coverage in Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan
- the three remaining polio endemic countries. Meanwhile, the World Health Assembly
of the World Health Organization was expected on Friday to pass a resolution calling
the eradication of polio a “programmatic emergency for global public health.”
Since
1985, Rotary International has contributed more than $1 billion and countless volunteer
hours to PolioPlus, a programme to immunize al the world’s children against the disease.
“We
are 99.5% of the way there. This is going to be the hardest bit,” said Ray Burman,
the President of Rotary International in Great Britain & Ireland.
Burman told
Vatican Radio If the disease is not defeated, there is a chance it will begin spreading
again.
“It’s only a plane ride away,” he said. “If we neglect this, it will
spread again out of control. We need to stamp it out. We can’t be complacent about
this.”
Listen to the full interview by Charles Collins with Ray Burman: