WHO warns $1.7bn funding shortfall threatens polio eradication efforts

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), a coalition involving the Gates Foundation and the World Health Organization, will experience a 30% budget reduction in 2026 and a $1.7 billion funding gap through 2029, which threatens efforts to eradicate polio.

At a news conference on Tuesday, Jamal Ahmed, the WHO’s director of polio eradication, said that the significant funding cuts meant that some activities would simply not occur.

According to officials, the shortfall is largely attributable to less foreign aid, particularly from the United States, which has stepped down from the WHO since Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Contributions to other significant donors, such as Germany and the UK, have also decreased.

According to Ahmed, “eradication is still possible and doable.” Everyone must remain committed and make sure no one is forgotten.

The GPEI intends to concentrate its resources on high-risk areas’ surveillance and vaccination efforts in response. Additionally, the initiative will use tactics like fractional dosing and collaborate with other health campaigns like measles programs. This method extends supplies while still shielding children from infection using as little as a fifth of a typical vaccine dose.

If there are no outbreaks, the initiative will also reduce operations in lower-risk areas.

Global health has long pursued the goal of eliminating polio. Since 1988, cases have dramatically decreased, but the virus still persists. Experts have warned that asymptomatic infections make tracking transmission challenging because the first goal was missed.

In Afghanistan and Pakistan, the two nations where the disease is still endemic, 36 cases of wild polio have been reported in 2025.

According to the GPEI’s plan, these regions will continue to receive significant interventions. In addition, Nigeria has reported 149 cases of vaccine-derived polio.

When a weakened virus is removed from a child, the virus can mutate and spread among unvaccinated populations. This causes vaccine-derived polio. Global health officials stress the importance of continued vaccination and surveillance despite this risk to finally eradicate the disease.