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REMARKS BY: DONNA E. SHALALA, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES PLACE: World Polio Forum, United Nations, New York, NY DATE: September 26, 2000
Madam Director-General, Madam Executive Director, fellow polio partners. Exactly forty-five years ago, the United States government approved history's very first polio vaccine. It promised the world's children a future free from iron braces and iron lungs.a future where their bodies and spirits could soar.and a future where they would not only survive-but thrive.
Today, we stand ready to write the final chapter on polio.to finally consign it to the history books where it can never again threaten a single child-or trouble a single nation. As we know, only 30 countries were considered polio endemic at the end of 1999-down from 50 in 1998-and a number of those countries will be polio free by the end of this year. But let me be clear: No nation is truly free from polio unless every nation is free from polio-and finishing the job won't be easy.
If we truly want to bring the curtain down on polio, then all of us must redouble our efforts to hasten its exit off the world stage. Donor nations and the private sector must do more to overcome the financial, political, security and other barriers to polio eradication. We must accelerate surveillance and immunization activities, as well as increase the number of National Immunization Days. We must eliminate administrative and bureaucratic roadblocks to the international campaign. We must work together across increasingly porous national borders. We must recognize that laboratory containment of wild poliovirus is critical for all of us-not just the developing world. And we must devote additional resources to the effort. But above all, we must not only pit our wallets to the battle-but our wills.
Extraordinary health goals can only be reached with political support at the highest level. All of us working on immunization campaigns in our own countries know that success requires political leaders at the highest levels to make immunization a priority.to hold their staffs accountable.to marshal the support of other sectors of society.to view immunization as a country-wide challenge.and to never-never- let the highest political support waiver.
I know that we are already seeing strong political commitment to polio eradication in many of the remaining polio-endemic countries. All of us-as leaders in this effort-must be just as committed. That is our challenge. That is our charge. That is our goal. So our purpose today is simple-it's a call to arms to finish the job.to save millions of children from polio's tears, and millions of parents from polio's fears.and to muster the will to certify the world as polio free by 2005. In our modern world, there are many dangers we can't prevent entirely. Polio is one threat we can do something about. We have the weapons. We have the wisdom. We need only the will. As the poet said, "Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance." We are stronger than polio. Let us persevere until it's gone.
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