Nigerian and South African scientists have joined hundreds of other experts from more than 80 other countries to launch the Scientific Declaration on Polio Eradication – a statement endorsing a new strategy aimed at wiping out polio by 2018.
The declaration’s launch on Thursday coincides with the 58th anniversary of the announcement of Jonas Salk’s vaccine against the crippling disease.
“Eradicating polio is no longer a question of technical or scientific feasibility. Rather, getting the most effective vaccines to children at risk requires stronger political and societal commitment,” said Dr. David Heymann in a statement. He is head and senior fellow at the Chatham House Centre on Global Health Security and is among more than 400 signatories to the declaration.
“Eliminating the last one percent of polio cases is an immense challenge, as is the eradication endgame after that," Heymann said. "But by working together we can make history and leave the legacy of a polio-free world for future generations.”
The declaration urges governments, civil society and international organizations to help end polio and protect the world’s most vulnerable children. The disease, which is highly infectious and can cause irreversible paralysis and death, remains endemic in three countries: Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In the declaration, scientists, doctors, technical experts and others call for full funding and implementation of the Polio Eradication and Endgame Strategic Plan 2013-2018 developed by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). The GPEI estimates that wiping out the disease by 2018 can be achieved for a cost of about U.S.$5.5 billion.
The plan includes strategies for polio eradication staff and processes to help strengthen routine immunization, in partnership with national immunization programs and the GAVI Alliance and in alignment with the Global Vaccine Action Plan.
“Eradication would demonstrate that worldwide collaborations can successfully combat complex health threats, including in remote communities too often left behind,” according to the plan.
Among the African signatories to the declaration are Dr. Oyewale Tomori, president of the Nigeria Academy of Science; Professor Ruth Nduati, professor of Paediatrics and Child Health at the University of Nairobi; and Dr. Helen Rees, executive director at the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute at the University of Witwatersrand.
