Eradication vs. Control: Comparing the Burden of Polio if Milestones Are Not Achieved

As was described by Dr. Thompson, it is clear that the cost benefits of eliminating polio for individual countries are clear when considered on their own. These benefits are felt by all nations that have contained the spread of the virus. It is the desired goal of the United States , and, I believe, the leaders assembled here today to reap those results for all nations – and all generations.

As discussed today, we are facing the last, and to a degree the most difficult, hurdles in polio eradication. There are serious security concerns for our brave health workers in many settings as was tragically made clear only last week with the murder of Dr. Abdul Ghani Khan in Pakistan as he worked to convince his countrymen of the value of immunizing their children against polio. There are barriers of social and community distrust that must be overcome. And, there are compelling competing demands for scarce health resources – both financial and human. This is, perhaps, the most common concern voiced by skeptics – and it is quite real.

HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and a myriad of other diseases are more common than polio. The fact that polio is no longer listed among these is due, in part, to the success of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, to the untiring efforts of those here today, and to the tens of thousands of health workers around the globe working to vaccinate children. The World Health Organization, UNICEF, and every country represented at this forum are investing time and resources to reduce the burden of these three diseases. They also have received significantly greater resources.

However, because there are other health challenges that confront us and which can be described as now greater, this should not distract us from the global goal of polio eradication. And polio eradication continues to bring benefits that also help support the efforts to combat other diseases. I would like to take a few moments to highlight some of the additional benefits that are being derived from our joint polio efforts:

• The G lobal Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), with its founding members Rotary International whose President, Bill Boyd, is here, WHO, UNICEF, US CDC, Dr. Julie Gerberding is with us, and now including many other partners such as the Gates Foundation, the UN Foundation represented by Cathy Calvin – this Initiative has become one of the largest public-private partnerships the world has ever known. It serves as a model of how international, regional, national, sub-national, local, governmental, non-governmental, public, and private entities can work closely together to achieve common goals and objectives.
• The Global Polio Eradication Initiative has significantly contributed to the development of public health and health infrastructure around the world. Its contributions include:
• Widespread networks of trained field staff that conduct surveillance and immunization activities;
• An extensive global laboratory and communication network that has been used for other diseases as well. Most recently, it has been utilized to address avian influenza;
• Health personnel and community workers have been trained and provided critical equipment to improve systems of vaccination against a wide variety of other childhood diseases, thus strengthening health systems in general; and
• Polio immunization campaigns are often combined with the provision of other critical services such as bednets for malaria prevention, vitamin A supplementation, and de-worming treatments.
• The benefits of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative also go well beyond the health sector:
• Polio eradication efforts have taught valuable lessons in media management, social mapping, community outreach, religious and social leader involvement, and social mobilization – approaches that have been transferred to other types of development programs and that are critical to good government overall;
• And polio vaccination activities have served as bridges to tranquility during times of conflict such as in Sri Lanka in the mid-1990s, the Philippines in 1993-1995, Sudan in 1994 and 1996, and in El Salvador from 1985-1991.

All involved have invested substantial time and resources to bring the polio pandemic to a point where complete victory is very close, though frustratingly evasive. We have new tools and better approaches. The solutions are within our grasp. We must choose the moral and strategically important path to achieve eradication of this terrible disease, and leave here today strengthened in our commitment to this goal. Polio eradication remains a top foreign policy objective and one of the highest international public health priorities for the United States

An historic opportunity lies within our grasp and the children of the world and, future generations, are counting on us to succeed.