Healthcare worker Sahro Ahmed vaccinates a child against the polio virus as part of a UNICEF immunization campaign in Warder, Somali region, Ethiopia.

global vaccination priorities: polio’s next!

In Brussels on 25 June, Foreign Secretary David Lammy pledged £1.25 billion from the UK to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance for the period of 2026-2030. This commitment will help to protect 500 million children from preventable diseases, saving at least 8 million lives. This pledge is a very welcome contribution to global health efforts. Now, with the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) needing additional funding, ministers must focus on polio, a disease that has almost been beaten, but which could come back.

what

global vaccination efforts save lives. Now, we must now end polio for good

who

the UK’s support for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance must be followed by funding for polio eradication

how

write to David Lammy thanking him for supporting Gavi and asking for additional funding to end polio

UK funding for global health

The successful replenishment of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance in June showed that despite the recent cuts to the UK’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget, the UK remains a big supporter of essential vaccination programmes worldwide. This is very welcome!

Now, we want to encourage the Government to continue supporting global health efforts by funding polio eradication over the next two years. The UK has been a key supporter of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) over many years, and must remain committed to ending this debilitating disease. Since 1988, 2.5 billion children have been immunised against polio. Though many countries have declared themselves polio free, it is still endemic (in the environment) in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and there is a risk of it coming back, with new cases of polio being regularly reported around the world in recent years.

key facts about polio

One in every 200 infections of polio leads to irreversible paralysis. Among those paralysed, mostly children, 5–10% die when their breathing muscles become immobilised.

When the GPEI started, polio paralysed more than 1,000 children worldwide every day. Since then, more than 2.5 billion children have been immunised against polio, thanks to the cooperation of more than 200 countries and 20 million volunteers.

There is no cure for polio – it can only be prevented. Polio vaccine, given multiple times, can protect a child for life.

Endemic transmission of wild poliovirus is continuing in areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Failure to stop polio in these last remaining areas could result in global resurgence of the disease. That is why it is critical to ensure polio is eradicated completely, once and for all.

Last year, a 10-month-old child in Gaza was confirmed as having polio. This was the first case of polio there in 25 years. Polio was also detected in environmental samples in various European countries including the UK. Environmental samples don’t always lead to cases of polio, but indicate an increased risk factor.

what campaigners have already accomplished on global vaccinations

Thanks to advocacy on Gavi replenishment, including letters and emails from many Results campaigners around the UK, we have succeeded in securing the necessary investment in global vaccination programmes for the next 5 years.

It remains to do the same for GPEI! Global incidence of polio has decreased by 99.9% since the programme’s inauguration. It is estimated that 16 million people today are walking who would otherwise have been paralysed by polio, and more than 1.5 million people are alive whose lives would have otherwise have been lost. Now, the task remains to tackle polio in its last few strongholds and get rid of the final 0.1% of polio cases that remain.

how you can make a difference

To ensure polio doesn’t have a resurgence globally after many years of effort, please write to the Foreign Secretary, David Lammy MP, and Development Minister Baroness Chapman, thanking them for their support for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, but emphasising the risk of a resurgence of polio. The UK Government should invest £50 million to GPEI in 2025 and £50 million in 2026 to contribute to global efforts to ensure a polio-free world.

Contact details:

Foreign Secretary, Rt. Hon. David Lammy MP, and Baroness Chapman, Development Minister, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, King Charles Street, London SW1A 2AH.

Email [email protected]

take action!

thank the Foreign Secretary for the UK’s pledge of £1.25 billion to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance

urge the government to continue to invest in global health, especially polio eradication

ask them to fund GPEI with £50 million for 2025 and £50 million for 2026

I took action!

we’re here to support you!

If you have any questions or need support or advice in writing your letter, please contact Naveed Chaudhri, Head of Campaigns, at [email protected].

new polio case in Myanmar

Earlier this year, a three-year-old girl was paralysed after contracting vaccine-derived polio in a village in Tangayan township, north-eastern Myanmar. Doctors described the case as a sign of the damage done to the country’s healthcare system by four years of civil war, and revealing gaps in vaccination coverage. A spokesperson for GPEI noted that “only a single isolate was confirmed, and at this time there is no evidence of circulation”. It is the first known polio case in Myanmar since 2019.

Read more about this example of the risk of polio resurgence in this article in The Telegraph.