Global Certification Commission

Since 1988, international efforts led by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative have reduced poliomyelitis cases caused by wild poliovirus by over 99.99% using vaccination.

In the 1980s, Rotary International led a successful campaign to end polio in the Americas with support from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) (for technical assistance, including surveillance), Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)/World Health Organization (WHO) (for coordination and project management), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) (for vaccine procurement), and other funding partners.

[12] By 1993, coordination of global activities on polio eradication by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) involved 4 spearheading partners led by the WHO Secretariat - WHO, UNICEF, Rotary International, and CDC - and the GPEI received broad support from world leaders, development agencies, and both public and private donors.

[15][16] The commission was initially established as a 13-person board and assigned the responsibility of delineating the criterion for the verification and certification of eradication of the wild poliovirus.

[15] The criteria for adequate surveillance included finding and examining at least one case of nonpolio acute flaccid paralysis per 100,000 children under 15 years old.

[26] Based in Yaoundé, Cameroon, and led by Rose Leke as chairperson as of 2020,[27][28] the group was tasked with overseeing the eradication effort in the Africa WHO region.

This region experiences significant political unrest, humanitarian crises, forced displacement, and deterioration of health care systems, which hinder eradication efforts.

[36] A 2011 US Central Intelligence Agency operation used a hepatitis vaccination program as a cover to search DNA evidence to confirm the location of Osama bin Laden.

More recently, the hostility has been exasperated by the United States' expansion of the use of drone strikes in northwest Pakistan;[36] in June 2012, Mullah Nazir, leader of the Federally Administered Tribal Agencies, distributed leaflets calling for a ban on polio vaccination with the goal of persuading the US to stop drone strikes in the area.

[39][40] Specific modeling studies for Nigeria,[40][41][42] which reported the last wild poliovirus cases in Africa, supported African regional certification.