As Ethiopia commemorates the 2022 World Polio Day (WPD) in Afar Semera, on Saturday November 5, it is said that to highlight progress made by the Ethiopian Ministry of Health and partners towards polio eradication, and the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and ROTARY – will reaffirm the commitment to continue delivering on their promise until polio is eliminated in Ethiopia.
World Polio Day commemorations for this year kicked off globally on 24th October 2022 with the theme “World Polio Day 2022 and Beyond: A healthier future for mothers and Children”.
Global partners and health workers have worked tirelessly for many years to bring polio cases down by 100 per cent worldwide. Africa has also made tremendous progress towards the eradication of the wild poliovirus (WPV), and in 2020, the WHO Africa Region was certified as wild polio-free, thanks to countries’ sustained commitment and coordination of partners.
However, the job is not yet done, and a non-wild polio variant continues to circulate in under-immunized communities until wild polio still threatens a few countries in Africa and beyond.
Countries must commit to vaccinating every child and strengthening disease surveillance to end any form of polio, anywhere in the world, as it is a threat to children everywhere.
Last month, donors pledged about US$ 2.6 billion at the World Health Summit that will help the Global Polio Eradic
ation Initiative (GPEI) to continue its critical role in fighting poliomyelitis to strengthen health systems around the world to end polio.
The remarkable progress in Ethiopia would not have been possible without the leadership of the Ethiopian Ministry of Health, the commitment of frontline workers, and the generous support of polio partners such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, ROTARY, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), USAID, WHO, UNICEF, Consortium of Christian Relief and Development Associations (CCRDA/CORE Group) and other Global Polio Eradication Initiative partners.
