At our April grassroots conference call, we were joined by a very special guest speaker, Aidan O’Leary, Director of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) at the World Health Organisation. Poliomyelitis is a devastating disease that used to kill and maim tens of thousands of children around the world every year, but now, the world is on the verge of ending polio completely. However, since COVID-19, polio programmes have been set back and cases have been increasing once more. We heard how GPEI is rising to the challenge of vaccinating children in the countries where children are most at risk, often those facing severe conflicts, and also how it is working to end transmission of the wild strains of the virus in the last two countries where it is endemic, Pakistan and Afghanistan. We discussed how the UK, previously a major funder of global polio eradication efforts, needs to rise once more to the challenge.
You can see our latest advocacy action here.
Links shared on the call:
Election candidates (PPCs) action
PPC training event recording
Campaigner Gill Price’s article on the Bond Manifesto
Government announcement on TB REACH
Results UK’s new report ‘Stigma kills’
An Instagram post of our World TB Day event in Parliament
Results UK blog on the 4 year anniversary of COVID-19 lockdowns in the UK
Campaigner Gill Price’s article about World TB Day
Recording of Sam Daley-Harris’ ‘Civil courage’ talk about his new book ‘Reclaiming our democracy’