{"id":33121,"date":"2021-06-15T16:01:37","date_gmt":"2021-06-15T07:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/global-development\/2021\/jun\/15\/eradicating-polio-is-finally-within-reach-why-is-the-uk-taking-its-foot-off-the-pedal"},"modified":"2021-06-15T16:01:37","modified_gmt":"2021-06-15T07:01:37","slug":"eradicating-polio-is-finally-within-reach-why-is-the-uk-taking-its-foot-off-the-pedal-anne-wafula-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=33121","title":{"rendered":"Eradicating polio is finally within reach. Why is the UK taking its foot off the pedal? | Anne Wafula Strike"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Instead of cutting the aid budget \u2013 including 95% from the plan to stamp out the disease \u2013 Britain should take a global lead<\/p>\n<p>Despite the Covid pandemic, there have been just two recorded cases of wild polio in 2021 \u2013 in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the two remaining hiding places for the disease. But eradication is not guaranteed. Polio is virulent and spreads quickly. Even one case poses a threat to unvaccinated children everywhere, which is why a new strategy <a href=\"https:\/\/polioeradication.org\/news-post\/countries-reaffirm-commitment-to-ending-polio-at-launch-of-new-eradication-strategy\/\">launched last week<\/a> by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) outlines a plan to utilise this small window of opportunity for the world to end polio for good.<\/p>\n<p>A 99.9% fall in polio cases globally in recent decades is thanks in large part to the GPEI and its supporters. The British government\u2019s recent announcement that it will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/global-development\/2021\/apr\/30\/britains-aid-cuts-whats-been-announced-so-far\">slash its contributions to the GPEI by more than 95%<\/a> has been a body blow. The funding cut amounts to almost a quarter of the annual World Health Organization polio eradication budget.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/global-development\/2021\/jun\/15\/eradicating-polio-is-finally-within-reach-why-is-the-uk-taking-its-foot-off-the-pedal\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Instead of cutting the aid budget \u2013 including 95% from the plan to stamp out the disease \u2013 Britain should take a global leadDespite the Covid pandemic, there have been just two recorded cases of wild polio in 2021 \u2013 in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the two&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2258,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[46,247,1066,59,346,914,60,900,299,61,52,565,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-afghanistan","category-aid","category-coronavirus","category-global-development","category-health","category-infectious-diseases","category-pakistan","category-polio","category-science","category-south-and-central-asia","category-uk-news","category-vaccines-and-immunisation","category-world-news"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2258"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33121"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33122,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33121\/revisions\/33122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}