Public Health

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Rotary International has made a new funding commitment of US$75 million over three years to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). Rotary, which has already contributed nearly $1.2 billion to the GPEI, announced the commitment at a 27 September high-level side event on polio eradication, convened by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during the United Nations General Assembly in New York.                                      

The side event — “Our Commitment to the Next Generation: The Legacy of a Polio-free World” — brought together leaders of the remaining endemic countries, and representatives of donor governments, development agencies, the GPEI partners, and the media to underscore the urgent need to finish the job of global polio eradication. Although the wild poliovirus is endemic only in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria, other countries are still at risk for re-established transmission of the virus through its “importation” from the endemics.