Saudi Arabia has pledged $500 million to eradicate polio in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Monday.
This funding, initially promised in April 2024, will be directed towards eliminating the wild form of polio in these countries and curbing outbreaks of variant polio.
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) aims to declare an end to the wild virus by 2027 and the vaccine-derived variant by 2029, adjusting its previous goal of eradicating both forms by 2026.
Notably, the United States, which has announced its intention to withdraw from the WHO, had been a major donor to the polio eradication program, contributing 17 percent of its budget for the 2024-2025 period, WHO data revealed.
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Wild polio, a naturally occurring strain of the disease, remains endemic in Pakistan and Afghanistan, with 99 cases reported last year according to the WHO. Variant polio, on the other hand, stems from the weakening of the oral polio vaccine.
