The disengagement of both USAID and the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) from the WHO-led global polio eradication initiative, threatens efforts in the world’s poorest countries with about  $233 million more in a year in budget shortfalls, WHO’s Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Region, Hanan Balkhy, said on Friday. 

This, in a year when polio cases increased by 283% in Afghanistan and by 550% in Pakistan in 2024, as compared to 2023. Vaccine-derived polio cases also were reported in 35 other African, Asian and Middle Eastern countries, as well as in Spain in 2024. The US also reported 31 cases in 2022.

“The disengagement of CDC and USAID is costing us already with the loss of their technical, strategic and functional support,” Balkhy told the WHO Executive Board in a session on Friday, devoted to progress on polio eradication, led by WHO jointly with the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI).