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| January 28, 2006 | Saturday | Zilhaj 27, 1426 |
WB approves $46.7m for polio eradication
ISLAMABAD, Jan 27: The World Bank has approved $46.7 million credit from the International Development Association (IDA) to support the Pakistan government’s effort to eradicate polio.
It is designed to help supply the Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) for the country’s Supplementary Immunization Activities (SIAs) during 2006-07, a statement of the Bank issued here on Friday said.
It said that the Second Partnership for Polio Eradication Project (SPPEP) supports the WHO-led Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), and builds on the original credit, approved in May of 2003, and a supplemental credit, approved in October of 2004, which supported the program with a combined US $ 42.94 million.
“Polio is almost history in Pakistan but there is no room for complacency”, the statement said.
Continued low intensity transmission of wild polio virus requires intensification and continuation of our efforts, said John Wall, World Bank Country Director for Pakistan.
This project will ensure continuation of supplemental immunization activities to stop spreading the disease and eradicating it from the country successfully.
It will benefit under-five children, especially from poor families who are unable to afford these services, he added.
The Polio Eradication Initiative has been a major national effort since 1994.
The programme’s achievement is reflected in declining number of polio cases, from tens of thousands per year in the 1980s to 24 cases as of November 2005.
Inaam ul Haq, World Bank Senior Health Specialist and task team leader for the project, says high quality supplemental immunization activities is the only effective strategy to ensure 100 percent coverage of the targeted population.
“In Pakistan, SIAs have immunized about 97 percent of the targeted population during the last three years. Even hard-to reach populations in far flung areas are being served under this initiative,” Haq said.
The indicators to measure project performance include: timely arrival of the Oral Polio Vaccine at the central stores of the Expanded Programme on Immunization; Supplemental Immunization Activities coverage in the targeted population (children under 5) during 2006 and 2007; and number of confirmed polio cases reported.
The International Development Association is supporting the Pakistan Polio Eradication Initiative in partnership with technical agencies (UNICEF and WHO) and several development partners.
The Polio Eradication Trust Fund, financed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and United Nations Foundation and managed by the World Bank, is already established.
The Trust Fund will pay the service fee for the Credit during implementation and “Buy down” the net present value of the IDA Credit if the projects successfully achieve project targets, converting the credit into a grant.
The credit, from the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s concessionary lending arm, carries a 0.75 per cent service fee, a 10-year grace period and a maturity of 35 years.
The GPEI is the largest public health initiative that has successfully eliminated polio from all but six countries with 1258 and 1262 cases reported globally in 2004 and 2005, respectively.—APP
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