Although polio has become increasingly rare worldwide, concerns are growing that the World Health Organization’s goal of eradicating the disease is slipping out of reach.

To help close the remaining gap, the Gates Foundation and the Mohamed bin Zayed Foundation for Humanity announced a joint $1.9 billion investment toward ending the disease. The Gates Foundation will contribute $1.2 billion of that total.

The funds, they said, will support “child survival efforts: expanding vaccine access, protecting newborns, and sustaining critical immunization programs in fragile and conflict-affected settings.”

The WHO set a goal in 1988 to eradicate polio, and since then there has been a 99% decline in illnesses.

But the Gates Foundation noted that global deaths among children under age 5 are proj

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