Global Health Forum III

Post-Certification Polio Immunization Policy
April 2-5, 2002
Annecy, France

Co-sponsored by:

• Task Force for Child Survival and Development
• Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Rockefeller Foundation
• United Nations Children's Fund
• World Health Organization

In 1988, the World Health Assembly resolved to eradicate polio globally by 2000. Since that resolution, the total number of polio cases fell 99.8% from 350,000 cases to 480 in 2001. It is now expected that all countries will be certified polio-free by 2005.

To help guide the process of developing polio immunization policies in a post-eradication era, IGH and its partners organized a Global Health Forum in April 2002. Participants included ministers, deputy ministers, and heads of departments from around the world-with sixty percent of the group representing developing countries. Together, they examined criteria for effective policy development and identified strategies for maintaining high-quality global surveillance, effective laboratory containment, and adequate response capacity, including sufficient vaccine stocks and the ability to restart polio immunization at any time. For more information, please read the Consensus Statement.