JAKARTA - The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Sunday pledged to invest US$1.2 billion or around Rp. 18,555,660,000,000 to eradicate polio, as health experts from around the world gather for a summit in Berlin, Germany.
"The eradication of polio can be achieved but as far as we have come, this disease remains a threat," said Bill Gates, chairman with the foundation.
The donation will be managed by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, a public-private partnership led by the government aimed at ending the disease by 2026.
Since its launch in 1988, the initiative has helped reduce polio cases by more than 99 percent worldwide, and prevented more than 20 million cases of paralysis, the foundation said.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are two countries where the wild polio virus remains endemic, although Malawi and Mozambique also detected cases of wild polio imported this year.
"Despite this historic progress, disruptions to routine immunizations, vaccine misinformation, political unrest and the tragic floods in Pakistan in 2022 have underscored the urgent need to complete work against polio," the foundation said.
"Another concern is that countries that have previously removed all forms of the polio virus have recently reported new detections. They include the UK and the US," the foundation continued.
Partners in this initiative include the World Health Organization (WHO), Rotary International, and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
It is known, polio is a highly contagious disease caused by the virus that enters the central nervous system and damages cells in the spinal cord and brain.
This disease can be fatal, and those who survive are often left paralyzed or with limbs that stop developing and are twisted.
Polio attack children under the age of 5 the most, but can attack anyone who is not vaccinated.
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