Fundraising drive marks latest polio eradication effort

Rotary International, an organization that has been one of the leaders in supporting global polio eradication efforts since the 1980s, announced the start of a $100 million fundraising drive aimed at funding the 'final push' toward eradication. Once complete, the Gates Foundation will match the total, as this Rotary International press release describes. Rotary also launched this website with more information.

Developing-world polio vaccination efforts have been quite successful, as this summary on the website of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative details, but eliminating the final few thousand worldwide cases each year has proven extraordinarly difficult. As we've written about, 2007 saw 1313 confirmed cases of polio, nearly 90% of which in two countries, India and Nigeria. (Some have argued that the current state of tight control of the virus and its spread is sufficient, given the challenges and cost of eradication efforts aimed at the final few thousand global cases.)

Here's coverage of the announcement from CIDRAP News and The Canadian Press.