Britain doubles support for global polio initiative

David Cameron has pledged to double the UK's aid spending on polio to help wipe out the disease.

The prime minister made the announcement at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he said that Britain's donation to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) would be increased to 40 million pounds this year and next.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates is also committing an additional 64 million pounds to the campaign through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The GPEI is a public-private partnership which aims to eradicate polio.

Cases have been cut by 99 per cent over the past two decades, but the disease is still present in more than a dozen countries and is endemic in Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan.

Mr Cameron told the World Economic Forum there is a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rid the world of the evil of polio", but that "sustained political will" is needed.

The last known case of polio in the UK was in 1998 thanks to the introduction of an effective vaccine in 1955.