On October 19, 2010, ten months after the catastrophic January 2010 earthquake in Haiti that killed over 200,000 people and displaced over 1 million, the Haitian Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP) was notified of a sudden increase in patients presenting with watery diarrhea and dehydration in the Artibonite and Centre Departments.
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is a public-private partnership led by national governments and spearheaded by the World Health Organization (WHO), Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Its goal is to eradicate polio worldwide.