Bulletin of the World Health Organization Achieving polio eradication: a review of health communication evidence and lessons learned in India and Pakistan Rafael Obregón , Ketan Chitnis , Chris Morry , Warren Feek , Jeffrey Bates , Michael Galway & Ellyn Ogden a. School of Media Arts and Studies, Ohio University, Athens, OH, United States of America (USA). b. United Nations Children’s Fund, Bangkok, Thailand. c. The Communication Initiative, Vancouver, BC, Canada. d. Polio/EPI Program, United Nations Children’s Fund, New York, NY, USA. e. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA, USA. f. Worldwide Polio Eradication, United States Agency for International Development, Washington, DC, USA. Correspondence to Rafael Obregón (e-mail: obregon@ohiou.edu). (Submitted: 01 November 2008 – Revised version received: 01 February 2009 – Accepted: 06 February 2009.) Bulletin of the World Health Organization 2009;87:624-630. doi: 10.2471/BLT.08.060863 Introduction Since 1988 the world has come very close to eradicating polio through the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, a programme in which communication interventions have played a consistently central role. This large public health initiative is organized by WHO, Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Other leading partners include the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, governments of polio- affected countries, donor agencies, non-governmental and private sector organizations. Primarily through mass vaccination campaigns, the Initiative cut the number of polio cases from about 350 000 in 1988 to 1643 by January 2009. Mass media and information dissemination approaches used in immunization efforts worldwide have contributed to this success. However, polio is still endemic in Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan. Reaching the hardest-to-reach, the poorest and most marginalized, and those without access to health services remains a critical challenge in all four countries that have pushed eradication a b c c d e f 1 1 , 2 3 Page 1 of 12 WHO | Achieving polio eradication: a review of health communication evidence and less... 2/1/2016 http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/87/8/08-060863/en/