Despite the dramatic drop in polio cases in the last year, the threat of continued transmission due to funding and immunization gaps has driven the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) to launch the Global Polio Emergency Action Plan 2012-13.
The plan aims to boost vaccination coverage in the three remaining polio-endemic countries — Nigeria, Pakistan, and Afghanistan — to levels needed to stop polio transmission.
India, the nation facing the greatest challenge to eradication, was removed from the list of polio-endemic countries by the World Health Organization. Outbreaks in previously polio-free countries were nearly stopped.
However, polio outbreaks in China and West Africa, due to importation from Pakistan and Nigeria, threaten resurgence. Failure to eradicate the disease could lead to paralysis of as many as 200,000 children per year worldwide within the next decade.
“Polio eradication is at a tipping point between success and failure,” says Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of WHO. “We are in emergency mode to tip it towards success — working faster and better, focusing on the areas where children are most vulnerable.”