Facing a $1.7 billion shortfall, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative outlines a new strategy focusing on high-risk areas and cost-saving measures, while acknowledging some activities will cease.
Global health leaders have affirmed that the goal of eradic polio remains within reach, even as they confront substantial reductions in financing. The announcement came with a detailed plan to manage a significant budget shortfall.
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), a consortium that includes the World Health Organization and the Gates Foundation, disclosed that its budget will be reduced by 30% in 2026. The partnership faces a funding gap of $1.7 billion for the period up to 2029.
A GPEI spokesperson indicated that the deficit is primarily a result of a worldwide contraction in foreign aid. The United States, which is also in the process of withdrawing from the WHO, is a leading factor, though its final commitment to polio funding is still undetermined. Other affluent donor nations, including Germany and the United Kingdom, have also implemented cuts.
In reaction, GPEI partners will intensify their focus on surveillance and vaccination campaigns in regions with elevated risks of polio transmission. The initiative will also deepen its collaboration with other global health programs, such as those for measles.
To conserve resources, strategies like fractional dosing will be employed, where a fraction of a standard vaccine dose is used. Research has demonstrated that this method can still effectively immunize children against the disease.
Concurrently, the partnership will scale back its operations in lower-risk zones, unless outbreaks occur, and will prioritize operational efficiencies.
“The significant reductions in funding… mean that certain activities will simply not happen,” stated Jamal Ahmed, WHO director of polio eradication, during a press conference on Tuesday.
Eradicating the paralysis-causing viral illness has been a long-standing international health objective. While mass vaccination since 1988 has yielded major progress, the final step has proven difficult, with the initial target date of 2000 having been missed.
Some experts have expressed doubts about the feasibility of eliminating a disease that is often asymptomatic, complicating tracking efforts. Proponents, however, argue that abandoning the effort when the world is so close would be unwise, despite obstacles like conflict and vaccine skepticism.
“Eradication remains feasible and is doable,” Ahmed asserted. “We need everybody to remain committed and ensure that no child is left behind.”
According to the GPEI, 36 cases of wild polio have been recorded in 2025 in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the two remaining endemic countries, where essential operations will continue. An additional 149 cases of a vaccine-derived form of the virus have been reported this year in nations including Nigeria. Incidents of both variants have declined since 2024.
Vaccine-derived polio can emerge when children receive a vaccine containing a weakened live virus. While these children are protected, the excreted virus can circulate and genetically revert within an under-immunized community, regaining the ability to cause paralysis.
