We can end polio: scientific community

Global scientists declare support for new plan to create a polio-free world by 2018

20130411_Scientific — A three month old baby is given two drops of polio vaccination in Jalalabad UNICEF / Knott

11 April, 2013 – More than 400 scientists from around the world, including Nobel laureates, public health school deans and other leading health experts, added their names to the Scientific Declaration on Polio Eradication [pdf] today, asserting that polio eradication is possible and expressing their confidence in a new plan to create a polio-free world by 2018.

With just 223 cases reported in 2012, compared to more than 350,000 in 1988, the world has a narrow window of opportunity to end this disease. The signatories to the declaration expressed their support for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative’s new Polio Eradication and Endgame Strategic Plan 2013-2018, calling on the global community to make the most of the current opportunity to end polio and fully fund the new plan.

The declaration, timed to coincide with the 58th anniversary of the announcement of the first polio vaccine, comes just two weeks before the Global Vaccine Summit – to be held in Abu Dhabi on 24-25 April. The Polio Eradication and Endgame Strategic Plan 2013-2018 will be shared with world leaders at the summit.

Read the full declaration at the Emory Vaccine Center website [pdf].

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