NAIROBI, Kenya — Global health officials say the world can still eradicate polio, even as a looming funding crisis threatens to slow the decades-long campaign against the crippling disease.
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), a coalition led by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, announced a revised strategy on Tuesday to sustain its operations amid deep budget cuts.
According to WHO, the initiative faces a 30 per cent funding reduction from 2026 and a $1.7 billion (Sh219.6 billion) shortfall through 2029, raising concerns about maintaining vaccination and surveillance programmes in high-risk regions.
“The significant reductions in funding mean that certain activities will simply not happen,” said Jamal Ahmed, WHO’s director of polio eradication. “We must focus our efforts where the risk is greatest.”
Focus on Endemic Hotspots
Polio has been wiped out from most of the world, but it remains endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where insecurity and limited access have hampered vaccination drives.
Under the revised plan, the GPEI will concentrate its resources on these two countries while scaling back operations in lower-risk regions.
It will also strengthen disease surveillance and integrate immunisation campaigns with other health programmes, such as measles vaccination, to cut costs.
Emerging Vaccine-Derived Strains
Health officials have also expressed concern over vaccine-derived polio outbreaks — cases that occur when the weakened virus in oral vaccines mutates and spreads in under-immunised communities.
Such outbreaks have recently been detected in Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.
In 2025, WHO recorded 36 cases of wild poliovirus in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and 149 cases of vaccine-derived strains in other countries — both lower than last year’s figures, signaling slow but steady progress.
Stretching Limited Resources
To make existing supplies last longer, the initiative plans to expand the use of fractional dosing, which delivers just one-fifth of a normal vaccine dose but still provides full protection.
The funding cuts, WHO said, stem largely from reduced global aid contributions by major donors, including the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany, who have scaled back foreign assistance since the Trump administration.
Despite the financial strain, WHO officials remain optimistic that eradication is achievable if current momentum is maintained.
“Ending polio is within reach — but only if the world sustains its commitment,” Ahmed said.
