Polio eradication the final challenge In 1962, just 12 months after Albert Sabins widely hailed oral polio vaccine(OPv) was li- censed in most industrialized countries, Cuba began using the vaccine in a series of nation ide polio campaigns. Shortly thereafter, indigenous wild poliovirus transmission had been rrupted. In other words, no Cuban child would ever again suffer this devastating di as the result of a Cuban poliovirus. Seldom, if ever, had a new health technology been exploited so successfully and so early in its lifespan, to the benefit of so many people countries were to experience such early successes, however, as polio continued to paralyse permanently half a million people every year -even by the 1990s between 10 and 20 million people who had survived the acute illness were living with its debilitating and often painful consequences. For Sabin, however, Cuba's experience with mass campaigns had reaffirmed his conviction that polioviruses could be eradicated so completely that future generations would know polio paralysis only through history books. Sabin,'s way of shaping that future without polio was to donate his vaccine to the World Health Organization so that it might be made available to all peoples, everywhere. Forty years later, the world is on the verge of realizing Sabins global vision of a future with out polio. Through an extraordinary 15-year international effort, indigenous polioviruses have now been eliminated from all but seven countries, down from over 125 when the initia- tive began(1)(see Figure 4.1). This progress is the result of a unique partnership forged between governments, international agencies, humanitarian organizations and the private sector to take up three key challenges to reaching all children, everywhere: effective engage ment of political leaders, adequate financing, and sufficient human resources. Through this partnership, over 10 million volunteers immunized 575 million children against polio in 9 of the lowest-income countries in the world in the year 2001 alone. This experience, and the prospects for the completion of polio eradication, provide insights for scaling up access to other health interventions, a process that will be essential to achieving ambitious national and international health targets such as those adopted in the Millennium Development Goals( 2) A new kind of partnership As international interest in a global effort to eradicate polio began to build up 20 years ago, there was limited experience with large-scale international health initiatives and with part nerships. In the mid-1980s, however, as an increasing number of countries in South America most notably, Brazil-successfully applied the Cuban model of mass campaigns and height- ened surveillance to control polio, a new kind of partnership began to emerge with this common purpose.Polio Eradication: the final challenge 59 4 Polio Eradication: the final challenge In 1962, just 12 months after Albert Sabin’s widely hailed oral polio vaccine (OPV) was li￾censed in most industrialized countries, Cuba began using the vaccine in a series of nation￾wide polio campaigns. Shortly thereafter, indigenous wild poliovirus transmission had been interrupted. In other words, no Cuban child would ever again suffer this devastating disease as the result of a Cuban poliovirus. Seldom, if ever, had a new health technology been fully exploited so successfully and so early in its lifespan, to the benefit of so many people. Few countries were to experience such early successes, however, as polio continued to paralyse permanently half a million people every year – even by the 1990s between 10 and 20 million people who had survived the acute illness were living with its debilitating and often painful consequences. For Sabin, however, Cuba’s experience with mass campaigns had reaffirmed his conviction that polioviruses could be eradicated so completely that future generations would know polio paralysis only through history books. Sabin’s way of shaping that future without polio was to donate his vaccine to the World Health Organization so that it might be made available to all peoples, everywhere. Forty years later, the world is on the verge of realizing Sabin’s global vision of a future with￾out polio. Through an extraordinary 15-year international effort, indigenous polioviruses have now been eliminated from all but seven countries, down from over 125 when the initia￾tive began (1) (see Figure 4.1). This progress is the result of a unique partnership forged between governments, international agencies, humanitarian organizations and the private sector to take up three key challenges to reaching all children, everywhere: effective engage￾ment of political leaders, adequate financing, and sufficient human resources. Through this partnership, over 10 million volunteers immunized 575 million children against polio in 93 of the lowest-income countries in the world in the year 2001 alone. This experience, and the prospects for the completion of polio eradication, provide insights for scaling up access to other health interventions, a process that will be essential to achieving ambitious national and international health targets such as those adopted in the Millennium Development Goals (2). A new kind of partnership As international interest in a global effort to eradicate polio began to build up 20 years ago, there was limited experience with large-scale international health initiatives and with part￾nerships. In the mid-1980s, however, as an increasing number of countries in South America – most notably, Brazil – successfully applied the Cuban model of mass campaigns and height￾ened surveillance to control polio, a new kind of partnership began to emerge with this common purpose