Alan Griffin (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Polio is a highly contagious viral infection that can lead to paralysis, breathing problems or even death. There is no cure for polio, only treatment to alleviate the symptoms. However, polio can be prevented through immunisation. Polio vaccine given multiple times almost always protects a child for life. Polio became one of the most dreaded childhood diseases of the 20th century. In the early 20th century much of the world experienced a dramatic increase in polio cases and epidemics became regular events, primarily in cities during the summer months. These epidemics, which left thousands of children and adults paralysed, provided the impetus for a great race towards the development of a vaccine. Developed in the fifties, polio vaccines have reduced the global number of polio cases per year from many hundreds of thousands to under 1,000 today. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative means to bring this figure down to zero. Many in this chamber are old enough to remember the scourge of polio in our own country. We remember the images of children with calipers and crutches, or maybe we read I Can Jump Puddles by Alan Marshall or heard about polio sufferers needing an iron lung to help them breathe. We also remember the easiest immunisation we ever had to experience: the Sabin oral polio vaccine.

Sadly, there are some children in the world who cannot access this simple vaccination against polio. Today, some children will contract polio simply because they are poor. They live in developing nations with no access to basic health care such as immunisation and the vaccine against polio in particular. In 1988 the World Health Assembly passed a resolution to eradicate polio, launching the GPEI. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is a public-private partnership led by national governments and spearheaded by the World Health Organization, Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the United Nations Children's Fund. Its goal is to eradicate polio worldwide.

Since 1998 more than 2.5 billion children have been immunised against polio, thanks to the unprecedented cooperation of more than 200 countries and 20 million volunteers, backed by an international investment of over US$8 billion.

Since its launch in 1988 the GPIE has reduced the global incidence of polio by more than 99 per cent and the number of countries with endemic polio, from 125 to 3. More than 10 million people are walking today who otherwise would have been paralysed. By 2006 only four countries remained that had never stopped polio transmission and annual case numbers had decreased by over 99 per cent. In January this year India passed three years without reporting a single case of polio, an achievement which led to the South-East Asia region of the World Health Organization being declared polio free on 27 March this year.

With this certification, the proportion of the world's people living polio free increased from 52 per cent to nearly 80 per cent. The WHO has estimated that, with continued support from the global community, the world can be free of polio by 2018. However, polio remains endemic in three countries: Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan. Until polio virus transmission is interrupted in these countries, all countries remain at risk of the importation of polio, especially in the polio virus importation belt of countries, from West Africa to the Horn of Africa. Worryingly, cases have also appeared in previously polio-free countries, including Somalia, Syria and Cameroon. That is why it is important to continue funding this important initiative and also to commit to the next step in the eradication of polio.

On 26 May 2012, the World Health Assembly declared ending polio 'a programmatic emergency for global public health'. Noting India's success, using available tools and technology, the threat to the global community of ongoing polio virus transmission in the remaining three endemic countries—as I mentioned, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan—the WHA called on the WHO director-general to develop and finalise a comprehensive polio end game strategy.

I commend the government for reaffirming Australia's support for the GPIE initiative by maintaining the $15 million commitment for 2013-14. However, I also call on the government to continue to support polio eradication by reaffirming Australia's commitment to provide $80 million over four years, from 2015 to 2018. This is aid that works.

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