Commending efforts to eradicate the wild poliovirus.

HRES 81 is a symbolic House resolution commending the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) for reducing wild poliovirus cases by over 99.9% since 1988, from 350,000 annual cases to only Afghanistan and Pakistan currently reporting transmission as of 2024. The resolution highlights GPEI’s work protecting vulnerable children globally, including in conflict zones, and notes that polio eradication would make it only the second human disease (after smallpox) to be eliminated worldwide. It urges continued U.S. funding for GPEI and international support to achieve full global eradication, emphasizing that polio remains a threat until transmission stops everywhere.