The Hindu : WHO upgrades support to polio eradication measures

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 30, 2003

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WHO upgrades support to polio eradication measures

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JULY 29. The new Director-General of the World Health Organisation, Lee Jong-Wook, said today that he would leave no stone unturned to ensure that polio was wiped off the face of the world at the earliest.

Addressing a globally hooked up press conference, Dr. Lee said his office would directly monitor the progress of the eradication efforts and announced that David Heymann, who led the team which prevented the SARS outbreak, had been appointed Representative of the Director-General for Polio Eradication. He was also "immediately" upgrading WHO's capacity to support India, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Egypt in their efforts to immunise every child against polio, considering that these four countries alone accounted for 99 per cent of the 235 new cases reported in the world this year. From the end of August to December, these countries will conduct mass immunisation campaigns aimed at reaching a total 175 million children.

"Polio eradication is a top priority. I want to see this disease gone once and for all. We have eliminated it from almost every country in the world. Now is the time to boost our action and resolve and wipe it out everywhere," he said.

Appreciating the recent statements of Canada, Japan, Russia, and the United Kingdom, committing a total of $95 million in additional funds for the polio eradication campaign, Dr. Lee said he was appealing to other countries in the G-8 group to follow suit.

"We face a funding gap of $210 million for activities through 2005. If we don't have sufficient funds, we will have to cancel these critical immunisation campaigns and cut back on surveillance programmes," he added.

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