The Final Two Polio Endemic Countries: Pakistan (Six Wild Polio cases reported in 2023. Twenty Wild Polio cases reported in 2022) and Afghanistan (Six Wild Polio cases reported in 2023. Two Wild Polio Cases reported in 2022).
The floods in 2022 were Pakistan’s worst natural disaster in decades highlighting multiple climatic vulnerabilities faced by the country. The human toll was tragically high with one third of the country submerged underwater, approximately 15,000 killed or injured and 8 million displaced This left the populations affected by the floods without access to healthcare.
This month, Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Remy Rioux, CEO of the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) announced new commitments to support the objective of global polio eradication by 2026. The funding – up to €20 million principal buy-down from the Gates Foundation will support Pakistan’s national health institutions and the Pakistan Polio Eradication Initiative to recover following impacts from the devastating floods in August 2022.