On a October day in 2023, three institutions that rarely speak with one voice, the European Commission, the European Investment Bank and the Gates Foundation, pledged €1.1bn to finish a task humanity has been circling for decades. The reason is a quiet one: the virus that once crippled hundreds of thousands of children a year is now confined to a shrinking corner of the map, and what remains is the hardest part. Whether polio joins smallpox as the only human disease ever wiped from the earth will be decided less in Brussels or Seattle than in the villages of Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the
EU, Gates Foundation and EIB Commit €1.1bn to Eradicate Polio, Second Disease Ever Targeted After Smallpox
Polio, which mainly affects children under 5 and can cause paralysis, remains endemic in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Six reported cases in 2021, down from an estimated 350,000 in 1988
Mark
Why does this announcement matter beyond the money?
Mimi
Because eradication has happened only once, with smallpox. This fund is pitched as the push to make polio the second.
Mark
The numbers look close to done. Six cases in 2021, down from 350,000.
Luke
Close, yes, but those are WHO figures, and the last stretch is usually the hardest. A drop of more than 99 per cent doesn't guarantee the final step.
Mimi
And the remaining virus is concentrated. Wild type 1 is still endemic in Pakistan and Afghanistan as of last year.
Mark
What will the €1.1bn actually do?
Mimi
Strengthen health systems in affected countries and help UNICEF and the WHO get vaccines and medicines to where they're needed most.
Luke
The announcement doesn't break the money down, though. No split between partners, no timeline, no target date for eradication.
Mark
Von der Leyen said "about to wipe polio off the face of the Earth."
Luke
That's a statement of intent, not a confirmed outcome. Success is still a goal.
Mimi
Still, three partners with different strengths are committing together, and the children most at risk are under 5.
Le Pouls
- A joint €1.1bn fund from the EU, EIB and Gates Foundation has been launched to finish off wild polio.
- Wild poliovirus type 1 still circulates in Pakistan and Afghanistan, leaving the final stretch unfinished and fragile.
- Cases have collapsed by more than 99 percent since 1988, yet just six reported cases in 2021 show how close and how stubborn the last mile is.
- Funds will strengthen health systems and push UNICEF and the WHO to deliver vaccines where they are most needed.
- Success would make polio only the second human disease eradicated, and progress in those two countries will reveal whether the goal is within reach.
On a October day in 2023, three institutions that rarely speak with one voice, the European Commission, the European Investment Bank and the Gates Foundation, pledged €1.1bn to finish a task humanity has been circling for decades. The reason is a quiet one: the virus that once crippled hundreds of thousands of children a year is now confined to a shrinking corner of the map, and what remains is the hardest part. Whether polio joins smallpox as the only human disease ever wiped from the earth will be decided less in Brussels or Seattle than in the villages of Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the last wild virus still moves among children.
On 11 October 2023, the European Commission, the European Investment Bank and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced a joint €1.1bn fund with a single ambition: to finish off polio. If it succeeds, polio will be only the second human disease ever eradicated, after smallpox.
Ursula von der Leyen framed the moment as the final stretch of a long effort, drawing a line to the global cooperation that helped the world through Covid-19. The money has two purposes: strengthening health systems in affected countries, and backing UNICEF and the World Health Organization as they bring vaccines and medicines to the places that need them most.
Polio is a highly infectious virus that mainly strikes children under five, spreading through contact with faeces and sometimes invading the nervous system to cause paralysis. Since 1988, wild cases have fallen by more than 99 percent, from an estimated 350,000 across more than 125 countries to six reported in 2021. Two of the three wild strains have already been eradicated. The third, type 1, persists only in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and that is where the fund's real test will be felt.
On 11 October 2023, the European Commission, the European Investment Bank and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced a joint fund of €1.1bn with one stated aim: to finish off polio. If it works, polio would become only the second human disease ever eradicated, after smallpox.
Commission president Ursula von der Leyen made the announcement. "We are about to wipe polio off the face of the Earth," she said, describing the three partners as working together to get through the final stretch. She tied the effort to the recent experience of the pandemic, saying global cooperation had helped end Covid-19 and would now help get rid of polio once and for all.
The money has two jobs. It will go toward strengthening health systems in affected countries, and it will support UNICEF and the World Health Organization as they deploy vaccines and medicines where they are most needed.
Polio, or poliomyelitis, is a highly infectious viral disease that largely affects children under 5. It passes from person to person, mainly by the faecal-oral route. The virus multiplies in the intestine, and can then invade the nervous system and cause paralysis.
The scale of progress is considerable. According to the WHO, wild polio cases have fallen by more than 99 per cent since 1988. At that point there were an estimated 350,000 cases across more than 125 endemic countries. In 2021, just six cases were reported.
Of the three strains of wild poliovirus, two have already been eradicated, in 1999 and 2020. The remaining one, wild poliovirus type 1, was still endemic as of last year in two countries: Pakistan and Afghanistan.
EIB president Werner Hoyer framed the fund as a chance to write the final chapter of polio's history. He called it a milestone in scaling up immunisation and strengthening healthcare, so that every child, regardless of circumstances, can be protected.
Bill Gates, Microsoft's founder and co-chair of the foundation, noted that medical innovation had already allowed the world to eradicate one disease, smallpox, and said it was on the verge of ending another. He said he was committed to ensuring no child anywhere faces polio, and optimistic that health innovations can be made more accessible, particularly in the poorest countries.
The measure of this commitment will be what happens in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the last two places where the wild type 1 virus remains endemic.
Citations marquantes
We are about to wipe polio off the face of the Earth.— Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission president
Today we are united to write the final chapter in the history of polio.— Werner Hoyer, EIB president
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Politics & Governance