Giving Compass' Take:
- Senior epidemiologist, Dr. Zubair Mufti Wadood, discusses how COVID-19 is disrupting polio vaccination campaigns.
- How can public health officials think about the long-term impact of COVID-19 on other infectious diseases and case counts? How can donor dollars help support comprehensive vaccination campaigns?
- Learn how focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic stunts progress on other diseases.
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The eradication of wild poliovirus is within sight — but only if the world remains committed and financially invested, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) announced on Tuesday at a virtual event amid World Immunization Week.
The event, Investing in the Promise of a Polio-Free World, marked the launch of GPEI’s investment case for its 2022-2026 polio eradication strategy. It brought together global partners, leaders of polio-affected countries, donors, and health workers to highlight the tactics that will be used to eradicate polio around the world. If fully funded, the organization's strategy would result in the vaccination of 370 million children per year for the next five years.
While wild polio cases have decreased by 99%, the global health community continues to face great challenges in its fight to eradicate this disease — particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the cascading effects it has had on access to health services, such as routine immunizations, worldwide.
As a senior epidemiologist working in the polio department at the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva, Dr. Zubair Mufti Wadood supports with planning and implementing polio eradication programs. Global Citizen caught up with Wadood to discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted polio vaccination campaigns and what this means for children around the world.
Over the last two years, we’ve seen the COVID-19 pandemic and its lockdowns impact every aspect of life. What impact did this have on polio campaigns globally?
This pandemic was unprecedented in our lifetime. We were hearing about more and more infections spreading around the world and people [were terrified]. On March 24, 2020, the polio oversight board issued urgent recommendations, including temporarily stopping polio vaccination campaigns.
Close to 30 countries had to postpone or cancel 62 campaigns, which is a huge number. Another 14 countries halted their vaccination campaigns of inactivated polio vaccine (IPV).
Resultantly, what happened was a significant geographical spread of poliovirus — both within countries that were already affected and international spread.
Read the full article about the impact of COVID-19 on polio vaccines by Jacky Habib at Global Citizen.