Berlin, Germany - The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged more than $1 billion to support efforts to end all forms of polio globally.

The new financial commitment will support implementation of the GPEI's Polio Eradication Strategy 2022-2026, which aims to end wild poliovirus in the last two endemic countries, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and stop outbreaks of new variants of the virus.

The foundation has contributed nearly $5 billion to GPEI.

"Polio eradication is within reach. But as far as we have come, the disease remains a threat. Working together, the world can end this disease," said Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

On Tuesday, Germany will co-host the GPEI pledging moment at the World Health Summit, where global partners, donors, and country leaders will make further commitments toward the GPEI Strategy 2022-2026, which requires $4.8 billion in funding.

If fully funded, GPEI will reach 370 million children each year with polio vaccines and other essential health services. GPEI's efforts include deepening relationships with communities, supporting governments in responding to outbreaks, and helping advance the roll-out of a next-generation polio vaccine.

Polio spreads when sanitary conditions are poor. The initiative is believed to have saved 20 million children from the infectious disease that can cause paralysis and death, but progress is faltering.

For the first time in years, new polio cases were recorded in Africa in 2022. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, children in many places have not received routine vaccinations.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has also declared a state of emergency after polio was detected in wastewater samples in several counties. New York reported the first polio case in the US in almost a decade this July.