Latest news with #ChrisElias
Zawya
01-03-2025
- Health
- Zawya
High-level delegation visits Nigeria, urges commitments from government
As Nigeria intensifies efforts to halt the transmission of type 2 variant poliovirus, a high-level delegation from the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), visited Abuja, Nigeria, 27-28 February 2025. During the visit, government, traditional leaders, and partners renewed their commitment to overcome remaining challenges to end polio in Nigeria. The visit, conducted by the Polio Oversight Board (POB), which is the highest decision-making body of GPEI, focused on reviewing progress, addressing challenges such as insecurity and vaccine misinformation, and mobilizing increased domestic and international support for polio eradication. Led by Dr Chris Elias, Chair of the POB, the delegation engaged in conversations with Nigeria's government and the highest traditional leader, the Sultan of Sokoto, to emphasize the need for renewed country leadership and ownership at all levels of government in the effort to stop the ongoing transmission of type 2 variant poliovirus. Other members of the delegation included Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, Acting WHO Regional Director for Africa, Mr Gilles Fagninou, UNICEF's Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Mr Mike McGovern, Chair of Rotary International PolioPlus Committee, Mr Derrick Sim, Interim Chief Vaccine Programmes&Markets Officer, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; Mr. Massimo De Luca, Head of Cooperation at the Delegation of the European Union to the Federal Republic of Nigeria and ECOWAS and GPEI Donor Representative. In Abuja, the delegation met with Prof Muhammad Ali Pate, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, who emphasized the country's longstanding commitment to polio eradication and underscored that further dedication across the country is necessary to implement corrective measures and stop transmission for good. The POB delegation also met His Royale Highness Abubakar, Umar Suleiman, Mai Bade, representing the Sultan of Sokoto, who reaffirmed Nigeria's steadfast commitment to polio eradication and routine immunization strengthening. Additionally, the delegation met with Dr Muyi Aina, Executive Director and CEO of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, and leadership from the National Emergency Operations Center. They assessed the current epidemiology of the virus and discussed the recommendations from the 42nd Expert Review Committee (ERC) on Polio Eradication and Routine Immunization in Nigeria. The ERC, a technical body composed of experts who regularly assess the progress of a country's polio eradication programme, met in Abuja on 29-30 January 2025 and gave a series of recommendations. To close immunity gaps and end polio transmission, the ERC urged greater political leadership, calling for active engagement of government officials and stronger accountability measures. The ERC recommended surveillance efforts and campaign quality must be improved through proven strategies to ensure targeted vaccine coverage. To enhance operations, the ERC recommended digitalizing vaccine tracking, strengthening cold chain logistics and ensuring timely fund disbursements. Additionally, the ERC recommended routine immunization must be strengthened through integration with polio campaigns and by deploying effective social mobilization strategies to counter misinformation and vaccine hesitancy. Throughout 2023-2024, type 2 variant poliovirus transmission levels were static despite tremendous efforts at all levels to reach every under-5 child with polio vaccines in the states that are affected by variant poliovirus. As of 15 February 2025, there were 94 confirmed polio affected children across 15 States during 2024. No type 2 variant poliovirus cases have been detected in Nigeria so far in 2025. The POB delegation underscored that renewed commitment from stakeholders at all levels of the country's robust polio eradication programme is critical to stopping the type 2 variant poliovirus from spreading within Nigeria and across neighbouring countries. Delegates further emphasized the need to accelerate the strengthening of routine immunization systems, given that optimal routine immunization coverage is key to breaking the ongoing transmission of type 2 variant poliovirus. Together with the government, the delegation agreed that rapid progress can be possible with significant efforts coordinating across states and federal ministries. Nigerian leaders reaffirmed their commitment to bolstering polio outbreak response activities and routine immunization to protect all children against polio. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of World Health Organization (WHO) - Nigeria.
Arab News
25-02-2025
- Health
- Arab News
Kingdom and Gates Foundation forge ‘strong and growing partnership'
RIYADH: The Gates Foundation is working with Saudi Arabia to help protect 370 million children from polio each year and lift millions out of poverty in 33 Islamic Development Bank-member countries, a leading official from the foundation said on Tuesday. The organization is also preparing to open a regional office in Riyadh, at Mohammed bin Salman Nonprofit City, to enhance its collaborations with authorities in the Kingdom. 'We have had a very strong and growing partnership with Saudi Arabia for some time. We work together on a variety of issues,' Dr. Chris Elias, the foundation's president of global development, told Arab News at the 4th Riyadh International Humanitarian Forum. During a special meeting of the World Economic Forum in Riyadh last year, Saudi aid agency KSrelief and the foundation announced a joint initiative to eradicate polio, improve global health and alleviate poverty. 'As we saw at the signing ceremony in the opening session of the RIHF on Monday … Saudi Arabia signed these agreements with the World Health Organization and UNICEF for $500 million over the next five years for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative,' Elias said. The funding provided by these agreements will be allocated to UN agencies that help implement the initiative. 'We also fund WHO and UNICEF,' he added. 'So our partnership is that we together give money to the key organizations that are fighting to eradicate polio. 'I currently chair the board of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, which is implemented by WHO and UNICEF, and we have made tremendous progress on eradicating polio from the world. 'We are down to two countries; for the last eight years, the only countries with endemic polio have been Pakistan and Afghanistan. So the majority of our effort at present is to finish the job on the eradication of polio in those two countries.' Speaking about the Kingdom's contributions to these efforts, he said: 'Saudi Arabia made a very large pledge and, as a consequence, we added a representative from the Kingdom to the governing board of what's called the Polio Oversight Board for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, that actually reaches about 370 million children a year with immunization. 'The second major component of our collaboration has been with the Islamic Development Bank on the Lives and Livelihoods Fund, that began five or six years ago. After a very successful first phase, we announced the Lives and Livelihoods' second phase last year, to which Saudi Arabia pledged $100 million. 'And our pledge was up to $100 million, to a limit of 20 percent of the funds, because we have other funders coming in: the government of the UAE, the government of Qatar, as well as support from the Islamic Development Bank itself through the Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development.' Elias also pointed out that the Gates Foundation, a charitable organization established 25 years ago by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his former wife, Melinda, has been working to support UNICEF's humanitarian relief efforts in Gaza. As for the opening of a regional office in Riyadh, he said: 'We are in the process, following through on the registration.' During the Misk Global Forum in Riyadh last November, the Gates Foundation and the Mohammed bin Salman Foundation, also known as Misk, announced Challenge for Change, a program that aims to provide support for nonprofit organizations and social enterprises across Saudi Arabia. This assistance includes seed funding for researchers, innovators, entrepreneurs and nonprofits that have the potential to make a social impact in the Middle East and North Africa, Elias explained. In Afghanistan, 'which has one of the most significant humanitarian situations in the world,' he said that the foundation is working with the Kingdom, the governments of the UAE and Qatar, and the Islamic Development Bank to help strengthen the healthcare system in the country. 'We also work with the Kingdom on disease outbreaks,' Elias added. 'We have a partnership, together with the WHO, for the Global Health Emergency Corps that sets out actions to save lives during health emergencies. It involves many countries but Saudi Arabia is serving as a pilot country for that emergency core.' It is very important to get disease outbreaks under control quickly, he said, and this is something that is particularly relevant in Saudi Arabia, a country that welcomes so many visitors from around the world every year for Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages. 'The Kingdom takes the protection of the holy sites and the protection of pilgrims who come to the holy cities, Makkah and Madinah, very seriously,' Elias noted. Regarding the recent decision by President Donald Trump to withdraw the US from the WHO, Elias said: 'WHO provides important guidance for countries around the world in public health. Gates Foundation is a major supporter of the WHO. The work of the WHO is going to remain extremely important and we will continue to work with them on these critical health issues. 'Our partnership will remain strong with them. I don't see us being able to step in to replace funding from the US, or anybody else, but we will continue to partner with the WHO on the most important health issues, polio eradication being one of them.' KSrelief, the Saudi aid agency, this year celebrates its 10th anniversary and Elias said: 'We have worked with KSrelief for many of these projects, on the Polio Legacy Challenge and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. 'I was very impressed at the forum's opening ceremony to see they had a wonderful video that documented their 10-year history of humanitarian assistance. 'We have been working with them very intensely for, probably, the last five years. I think it's really impressive what KSrelief has achieved in the first 10 years. We look forward to working with them for the next 10 years.'
