Polio fight gets $200 million from Gates, Rotary foundations

CHICAGO — Aiming to inject $200 million into the global campaign to eradicate polio, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced Monday that it is awarding a $100 million challenge grant to the Rotary Foundation.

The Rotary Foundation said it plans to match the Gates grant dollar for dollar through fundraising over the next three years. In the first year alone, Rotary expects to spend $100 million on immunization projects in the four remaining countries where polio is still endemic.

The grant is one of the largest challenge grants ever awarded by the Gates Foundation and is the largest given by any organization to Rotary. The foundation is the nonprofit charitable arm of Rotary International, which has contributed $633 million to efforts to stamp out polio.

Eradicating the crippling and potentially fatal disease would represent a landmark public-health achievement, and some global-health experts think the world stands at the brink of seeing that goal realized. Other experts are not so sure.

Scientists and public-health professionals have been debating whether eradication is possible. Some have argued that resources should be directed at trying to contain the disease, which would be far less costly than trying to eliminate it entirely.

That idea was dismissed during Monday's announcement.

"Eradicating polio is an achievable goal," said William Gates Sr., foundation co-chairman.

Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization, said: "We have very few opportunities to improve the world in a permanent way. And this is one."

Polio has stricken untold millions around the world. In 1952, its peak year in the U.S., it paralyzed more than 20,000 Americans.

But it became a disease of the past in this country after the discovery of a preventive vaccine in the 1950s and widespread immunization. Gone were widespread fears about sudden, debilitating paralysis and the use of iron lungs to keep people alive. No cases of infection from "wild virus" — transmitted from person to person — have been reported in this country since 1979.

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative was launched in 1988, led by the World Health Organization, Rotary International, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and UNICEF. At that time, more than 125 countries reported polio cases.

Since then, the incidence of polio has been cut by more than 99 percent, and endemic wild polio virus has been eliminated in every country except Nigeria, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Armed conflicts, cultural barriers and geographical isolation are among the obstacles to stamping out polio in those countries.

Last year, fewer than 2,000 cases were reported worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.

Poliomyelitis mainly affects children under age 5. The virus enters the body through the mouth, multiplies in the intestine and invades the nervous system. One in 200 polio infections leads to irreversible paralysis, usually in the legs. Among those paralyzed, 5 to 10 percent die when muscles in their chest become immobilized and they are unable to breathe. Polio is incurable.