Press Release
11 May 2006
Tony Blair receives award for UK's fight to create a Polio-free World
UK Prime Minister Tony Blair was today named Polio Eradication Champion by Rotary International. Hilary Benn, the UK Secretary of State for International Development (DFID) accepted the award on behalf of the Prime Minister.
Hilary Benn said:
“Eighteen years ago 125 countries were blighted by polio. Today it is endemic in only four countries. If we are to wipe out this terrible disease in the next two years, donors from around the world must fill the funding gap so children in Africa and Asia can continue to receive polio drops and immunisation drives are not disrupted.
“I think we all look forward to the day when polio can be consigned to the medical history books and there will be no need for such an award.”
The award was presented by Luis Vicente Giay, former President of Rotary International who said:
“On behalf of Rotary’s 1.2 million members worldwide, I am honoured to present this award in recognition of Prime Minister Tony Blair’s unwavering support for polio eradication.”
The UK is the second largest public sector donor to the Global Polio
Eradication Initiative (PEI), most recently having pledged £60 million for
2005-2008, £20 million of which has already been disbursed. It is estimated that
between 1988 and 2005, five million people who would otherwise have been
paralysed are walking because of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
Mr Benn called on other members of the G8 group of industrialised nations as well as non-traditional donors and the private sector to step forward and fill the $85m funding gap by July. He also warned that if a further $400 million was not raised to take action from 2006 to 2008 it would lead to over 10 million new polio cases around the world by 2050. Mr Benn suggested that funds could also come from other, non G8 countries, such as countries belonging to the Organisation of Islamic Conference, who are playing an increasingly important role in tackling development issues.
Today, polio is only endemic in Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan - the lowest number of polio-endemic countries in history - but Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Nepal, Niger, Somalia and Yemen have been re-infected.
Polio is a highly infectious disease which mainly affects children under five years of age. There is no cure but it can be prevented. A polio vaccine costs between 13 and 17 cents per dose. If the polio vaccine is given several times it can protect a child for life. The number of children infected with polio has dropped by 99.6 per cent from 350,000 cases in 1988 to 2000 reported cases at the end of 2005. According to health officials the remaining 0.4 per cent of cases pose the biggest challenge of all.
Past recipients of the award have included Bill Clinton, Kofi Annan and Pervez Musharraf.
Rotary International said the award to Tony Blair was for his efforts at last year’s G8 summit to encourage other world leaders to make good on past commitments on polio eradication. During meetings of the Commission for Africa in 2005, the Prime Minister had encouraged leaders of polio endemic countries, particularly Nigeria, to take swift action and finish the job of eradication.
Notes to Editors
1. Polio is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus. It invades the nervous system, and can cause total paralysis in a matter of hours. The virus enters the body through the mouth and multiplies in the intestine. Initial symptoms are fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness in the neck and pain in the limbs. One in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis (usually in the legs). Amongst those paralysed, 5-10 per cent die when their breathing muscles become immobilised.
2. Polio was endemic in 125 countries when the Polio Eradication Initiative began in 1988, now it is only four:
- Afghanistan: Four cases have been reported in 2006, compared with none for the same period last year. National Immunisation Days took place in early April.
- India: 17 cases have been reported in 2006 compared with 12 for the same period in 2005, all in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
- Nigeria: 245 cases have been reported in 2006, compared to 32 cases for the same period in 2005. Five states in Nigeria account for 80 per cent of all cases in the country and over half of all global cases.
- Pakistan: Only two cases have been reported in 2006, compared with four for the same period last year. This is the lowest number of cases for the first quarter ever recorded. There have been incidences of polio being imported into Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Somalia and Yemen.
3. The $85 million gap in the PEI’s funds needs to be filled by July to allow the purchase of more oral polio vaccines, conduct immunisation campaigns and emergency response mop-ups, ensure active disease surveillance and maintain a vaccine stockpile for the post-eradication era. The $400 million required for 2006-2008 is for similar activities.
4. Rotary established the award in 1995 to recognise governments and world leaders who have made an outstanding contribution towards the goal of eradicating polio. In 1985, Rotary members worldwide committed themselves to immunise all the children in the world against polio. Since then, Rotary has contributed more than US$650 million (£365 million) to a polio-free world. Of that amount, the 57,500 Rotary members in the UK have donated over US$18.5 million (£10.4 million) in support of polio eradication and over one million working hours to help immunise more than 2 billion children in 122 countries during national immunisation campaigns.
5. From 1988-2006 the UK has given $571 million to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (PEI). The PEI is the UN agency leading the fight against polio around the world and is spearheaded by the World Health Organisation, Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
6. For further information about the work of Rotary International please contact Judith Diment at 44-162-8672965 or 44-786-0162313 (mobile), judithdiment@aol.com . If you would like more information about what the UK Government is doing to combat polio please contact the Department for International Development press office on 020 7023 0600 (24 hours).
