CHRIS MATHESON MP JOINS UK POLIO SURVIVORS AND CROSS-PARTY MPs to SPEAK UP FOR POLIO ERADICATION AND UK AID

Following the UK government’s announcement on UK aid cuts, cross-party parliamentarians have joined campaigners to push for the UK’s continuing support for polio eradication.

In April 2021, the UK government announced cuts to its foreign aid budget by approximately £4bn following commitments made in 2019 to spend 0.7% of gross national income on aid.

In a short video, released last week, Labour MP Chris Matheson joins MPs Tobias Ellwood and Andrew Mitchell to highlight their concern about the substantial cuts and the impact it will have on global health generally in a bid to ensure we ‘don’t let disease bounce back’.

Polio survivors from around the country and cross-party parliamentarians pledge their support for the polio programme, which has played a pivotal role in responding to the COVID-19 crisis. The programme lent its tools, workforce and surveillance network to help countries respond to the pandemic. This came as agenda priorities for this week’s G7 Summit that took place here in the UK included equitable access to vaccines and the need for global communities to work together to rebuild their health systems.

Chris Matheson states:

‘The UK has long supported the global polio programme, which has seen cases decrease by over 99%. We must continue to support global health and ensure we do not inflict damage that could take decades to undo.’

Myra James, a UK Polio survivor who also features in the film, states:

‘I contracted polio in 1953 in the UK and I am extremely disappointed to hear that the commitment made in 2019 to vaccinate 400 million children a year until 2023 against polio has been cut. Especially given that polio resources have been used to support COVID-19 response.’

The UK is a leader in global health and it has been a longstanding supporter of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative which has overseen a 99.9% fall in polio cases globally since it was formed in 1988. The polio programme has already saved more than 18M from paralysis and today, polio remains endemic only in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In November 2019, the UK pledged to vaccinate 400 million children a year until 2023 against polio.

Despite the remarkable progress the UK has made, the cuts will undoubtedly jeopardise the prospect of polio eradication. This decision to significantly cut funding has raised a great deal of concern with health programmes and communities around the world who rely heavily on this aid. The UK aid cuts also risk weakening one of the most effective disease surveillance and response networks in the world at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic continues its devastation.

Despite the successes, challenges to polio eradication efforts such as mobile populations, weak routine immunisations, community refusals, have been exacerbated this year by the COVID-19 pandemic. In recognition of this, committed advocates and parliamentarians have come together to show their support as part of the One Last Push campaign for polio eradication.

Join the campaign at onelastpush.org or donate at endpolio.org/donate

For more information or media queries please contact sarah.covill@mcsaatchi.com or visit:

http://onelastpush.org

The video features the following MPs and contributors:

1. Myra James (polio survivor)
2. Eddie McCrory (polio survivor)
3. Judith Diment (Rotary)
4. Stephen Crabb (Conservative MP)
5. Bob Blackman (Conservative MP)
6. Andrew Mitchell (Conservative MP)
7. Tobias Ellwood (Conservative MP)
8. Dr. Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party MP)
9. Chris Matheson (Labour MP)
10. Baroness Sheehan

Call To Action:

Join the campaign at onelastpush.org

Donate at:

http://www.endpolio.org

One Last Push Campaign

The campaign exists to support global efforts to eradicate polio, to make sure every child, no matter where they live, is protected from this deadly disease. Although people may think polio has gone for good, the fact is polio still infects children, especially in remote regions around the globe, and until it is completely eradicated, there is always a risk Polio could make a devastating return.

We work closely with the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, a worldwide partnership led by national governments and spearheaded by the World Health Organisation, UNICEF, Rotary International, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Initiative is the biggest public-private health effort in history, involving 200 countries, 20m volunteers, with over 2.5bn children vaccinated globally.

About Polio

Polio is now only endemic in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and with the vaccine we can stop it there too. To date in 2021, there have been just two cases of wild polio, one in each of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The last case of polio in the UK was in 1984 and today, there are around 120,000 men and women suffering from the after-effects of this devastating disease nationwide.

How the polio programme pivoted the COVID-19 pandemic

• Overall, 30,000 polio programme staff have been deployed to the global COVID-19 response.
• Joined country teams from national to community levels, as incident managers, programme coordinators, and data analysts.
• Conducted a range of training sessions, using mobile technology (WhatsApp and other platforms) to educate health workers about COVID-19.
• Harnessed polio emergency-operations centres and other resources to track clusters of COVID-19 cases and conduct contact tracing.
• Shipped COVID-19 samples to laboratories for analysis.
• Added COVID-19 symptoms to the list of disease symptoms they look for in communities and in active surveillance at clinics and other facilities.