Global Polio Eradication Initiative Launches | Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

GENEVA -- In Geneva this Friday, a broad range of stakeholders will formally launch the new Strategic Plan 2010-2012 for eradicating wild poliovirus.

Across Africa, 10 of the 15 previously polio-free countries re-infected in 2009 have successfully stopped their outbreaks1. Key endemic countries are witnessing historic gains against the disease. Nowhere is progress more evident than Nigeria, where case numbers have plummeted by more than 99% – from 312 cases at this time last year, to three in 2010. In India, for the first time ever, the remaining endemic states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have not reported any wild poliovirus type 1 cases concurrently for more than six months.

To read the whole press release, visit the WHO website.