United Nations Foundation: The Case for Ending Polio

While the world is closer than ever to eradicating polio, a final push of funding is needed to get over the finish line. Why should donors and advocates support this cause?

Polio is a devastating disease that can paralyze and even kill children. In 1988, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) – a partnership led by national governments, with five core partners, including the World Health Organization, Rotary International, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and UNICEF, and comprising millions of health workers and advocates around the world – was formed to eradicate polio once and for all.

This global effort has made incredible progress: Polio cases are now down from over 350,000 cases per year in 1988 to fewer than 100 cases in 2015. GPEI recently determined that it will take additional funding to end the disease and released its investment case, which explains why the funds are necessary and why it is more important than ever that the global community does all that it can to end polio for good. Here are the main takeaways.

WHO: More than 120 health workers have died of Ebola

The World Health Organisation said that more than 240 health workers working on the Ebola epidemic have contracted the disease and around half of those infected workers have died. 

More than 120 health workers have died of Ebola across west Africa, the World Health Organization said on Monday, claiming the epidemic had affected an "unprecedented number of medical staff".

In a statement, the WHO said more than 240 health care workers working in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone have developed the disease with "more than 120" succumbing to the epidemic.