The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Rotary International announced the funding of the global campaign to eradicate polio with the sum of $200 million (£97m). This grant comes after the World Health Organization (WHO) urged those willing and capable to make donation in order to wipe out the malady altogether.

During the last two decades, the campaign against infantile paralysis was very successful and through immunization programs the number of polio cases was significantly reduced.
However, in countries like Nigeria, Pakistan, India or Afghanistan, the poliomyelitis is still widespread.

The polio is an acute viral infectious disease spread from person to person, primarily via the fecal-oral route, and stats show that in the late 1980s there were approximately 360,000 children affected by the malady. The immunization programs were very effective and those suffering from the disease were reduced to about 700 a year. Those in charge with fighting the polio have recently made attempts to eradicate it altogether but have failed.

The Rotary Foundation announced that the Gates Foundation would donate 100 million dollars to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) as a challenge grant that the Rotary group will match. The sum will be raised over the next couple of years.

"The extraordinary dedication of Rotary members has played a critical role in bringing polio to the brink of eradication," said Bill Gates, who along with his wife heads the Gates Foundation.

"Eradicating polio will be one of the most significant public health accomplishments in history, and we are committed to helping reach that goal," added the founder of Microsoft.

The Rotary group has spent about 633 million since 1985 when it begun funding efforts to eradicate the infantile paralysis and it collaborated since then with the GPEI, the World Health Organization, with the US Centers for Disease Control and UNICEF.

"This investment is precisely the catalyst we need as we intensify the push to finish polio," said WHO Director General Margaret Chan.

The countries that have the most polio cases are India and Nigeria, both recording 85% of the world’s cases.