Advocacy A Practical Guide with Polio Eradication as a Case Study

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative was launched to eradicate polio by the end of the year 2000, and at the same time strengthen health infrastructure. The initiative has achieved significant progress toward both these goals. Polio is now gone from the Americas and Western Pacific region and showing no trace in Europe. There has been a dramatic decline in cases everywhere in the ten years since the target was set in 1988. Millions of children who would have been paralyzed can still walk. Polio has gone from being a leading cause of disability to a disease that is on the verge of eradication. At the same time, the polio eradication initiative has achieved lasting benefits that will have an impact on the control of other diseases. Immunization coverage has improved in countries where polio has been eradicated. Other health interventions such as delivery of vitamin A supplements are now included in polio immunization campaigns.