Rotary International commits USD 75 mn for polio programmes

Though India has been declared polio-free, it is yet to get the certificate announcing that the country has gotten rid of the deadly disease.

The new funding was announced by the Rotary International at an event convened by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

This additional funding commitment which is in addition to USD 1.2 billion invested by Rotary to GPEI, follow action taken in May by the World Health Assembly, which declared polio eradication a "programmatic emergency for global public health".

Deepak Kapur, chairman of Rotary's India National PolioPlus Committee, said the funding comes in at a crucial stage for the global Polio eradication campaign.

"It will be part of a worldwide effort to close a USD 945 million funding gap that threatens to derail the 24 year-old global health effort, even as new polio cases are at an all-time low and India is half the mark to achieve polio-free certificate," he said in a release.

The additional funding will help India and other endemic countries in the months ahead to sustain and ensure the eradication efforts toward becoming Polio-free.

Along with this new commitment from Rotary International at the special side-event, The Islamic Development Bank (IDB), a new donor to the polio eradication effort, announced a USD 227 million loan to Pakistan a USD 3 million grant for polio activities in Afghanistan.

India has been polio free for the past 20 months and most recently was taken off the WHO endemic list.

India is striving to complete 2012 with similar resolve and commitment of 'zero' polio incidence while etching closer to the three year target before accomplishing the regional polio-free certification by WHO in 2014.