The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) started in 1988 and has been a massive step in eradicating polio. Several efforts to destroy polio have prevented more than 20 million potential polio cases. However, a few countries still have wild polio outbreaks. In 2023, there were 12 confirmed cases of wild polio in Afghanistan and Pakistan. If the number of cases increases and spreads in Afghanistan and Pakistan, variants of polio may cause an outbreak and put children at risk of contracting polio. Low vaccination rates put children at risk of contracting polio, with nine cases appearing in 2020 and 2021 in southeastern Africa after not being detected since the 1990s. Polio variants can erupt due to oral poliovirus vaccines, weakened virus spreading, and mutations in a weakened virus, eventually causing a paralysis-causing variant to form. The goal is to end polio rather than constantly treat cases and outbreaks permanently. This would save about $33 billion in health-related costs by 2100. Polio vaccines are on the lower end, costing approximately 10 cents per vaccine.
To address the cases in Afghanistan and Pakistan specifically, the GPEI has developed a Polio Eradication Strategy from 2022 to 2026 to eradicate polio by 2026. There are four main goals they hope to achieve this time
Goal 1: Create urgency and accountability through advocacy to generate greater political will. Afghanistan struggles more with negotiating polio access for all children, while Pakistan struggles with the government not prioritizing polio eradication. GPEI will have to work with communities and the government to ensure that access is increased and the government is accountable for distributing polio vaccinations.
Goal 2: Generate vaccine acceptance through context-adapted community engagement. This includes strengthening the communication competencies of frontline workers, working with influencers in Pashto-speaking communities to garner trust, and collaborating with Pashto-speaking organizations with expertise in Pashto-speaking communities.
Goal 3: Improve frontline success through modifications to campaign operations. The GPEI wants to provide vaccines to prevent polio and supplementary immunization activities (SIA), like Vitamin A and deworming tablets. The GPEI also wants to ensure the training for frontline workers is supportive and effective and to provide review processes to solve problems at each level of the government.
Goal 4: Expedite progress through expanded integration and unified partnerships. The GPEI outlines that they will develop a broader, systematic, multisectoral method for integrated service delivery to reach this goal. In addition to incorporating the communities affected by polio into the initiatives, the GPEI hopes to work closely with them and add essential immunization services to health facilities.
Goal 5: Improve detection and response time through surveillance of new cases. While it is essential to prevent polio, reducing the spread is just as necessary and required to ensure no new variants are created and spread to high-risk populations.
Along with reducing the spread and preventing polio in countries with current outbreaks, the GPEI will still ensure international prevention through polio vaccination accessibility. As stated in their proposal, they hope to deliver the promise by 2026 to ensure that polio will not paralyze children again.
Thank you for reading,
Siri Nikku
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