On Thursday March 20th, SABII member Dr. Majdi Sabahelzain participated in a Polio Roundtable discussion held to commemorate the visit of Canadian polio advocate Ramesh Ferris to Australia, which brought together key stakeholders in polio advocacy and action in Australia.
The primary focus of the event was to strengthen Australia’s role in global polio eradication efforts, with representatives from Rotary, Global Citizen, Results Australia, NCIRS, and Polio Australia in attendance. The event featured a keynote address by Ramesh Ferris, who spoke about his journey and advocacy, global and regional progress towards polio eradication, and lessons learned from past successes.
Following the keynote, there was an informal Q&A session with Ramesh, and the event concluded with an open discussion among all participants that addressed the current status of polio eradication, the role of vaccination programs, challenges in reaching the last mile, a reflections on Australia’s role in eradication efforts, particularly with the recent decisions of the U.S. administration to withdraw from WHO and dismantle USAID.
