The global drive to eradicate polio through intensive immunization programs, particularly in the Third World countries, received a tremendous boost on Monday when the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced a donation of $100 million for the cause.
 

Meanwhile, the program received the much-needed funds infusion when the Rotary Foundation also said that it plans to match the Gates’ grant dollar-for-dollar through fundraising over the next three years.

While the donation from the Gates Foundation is one of the largest ever grant made by the foundation so far and also the largest ever donated to the Rotary by any organization, Rotary plans to spend $100 million on immunization projects in the four remaining countries where polio is still endemic during the first year of the program.

Over the years, efforts to eradicate polio have been largely successful as the diseases have been slashed by nearly 99 percent worldwide, barring instances in some countries like Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan.

According the Director-General of the World Health Organization Margaret Chan, the grant from the Gates Foundation and Rotary International will be a catalyst required to eventually wipe out the infection that mostly strikes children under five.

The highly infectious polio virus usually causes common cold symptoms, but in a small percentage of people spreads to the digestive and nervous systems and can cause severe, lasting damage. Survivors can struggle to walk or breathe.

In a statement issued on Monday, Margaret Chan said that the organization had the technical tools to fight and wipe out the infection as well as the determination to achieve a polio-free world. However finance remained an issue, she added.

She further said that the organization was closer to this goal than ever before. All four of the remaining polio-endemic countries are largely on track to reach very ambitious milestones, she said, referring to India, Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
 

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