Writing in The Lancet’s “Global Health” blog, Zulfiqar Bhutta, founding director of the Center of Excellence in Women and Child Health at Aga Khan University and co-director of research in global health at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, and Walter Orenstein, a professor and associate director of the Emory Vaccine Center at Emory University, discuss the Global Polio Eradication Initiative’s (GPEI) strategic plan to end polio by 2018, noting the program’s encouraging track record and the challenges of eradicating the disease. “…The Strategic Plan contains the keys to bring vaccines to the remaining hotspots. But without action, the plan is just a plan, and to make eradication a reality, global leaders must deliver in several ways. … Failure to stop polio in these areas will be disastrous, and risks a fresh set of outbreaks across the globe that could unravel the progress already achieved…” (4/30).