The World Health Organisation (WHO) on August 25, 2020 declared Africa is free from poliovirus. However, poliovirus now joins smallpox in the list of viruses that have been wiped out in Africa. According to WHO, no new cases of wild poliovirus have been recorded on the continent since 2016, but other types of the virus persist. Prof. Rose Gana Fomban Leke-led commission has certified that no cases had occurred on the African continent for the past four years, which is a threshold for the eradication of poliovirus. The last case of wild polio was reported in Nigeria four years ago. As per WHO, some 95 per cent of Africa’s population has now been immunised. However, the threat of vaccine-derived polio continues to remain.
WHO has declared that two of the three strains of wild poliovirus have been eradicated from across the world. Africa is declared free from the last strain of the wild poliovirus. Now, the disease is only prevalent in parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Polio Eradication Campaign in Africa
WHO had launched the ambitious polio eradication campaign in Africa in 1996. Polio had paralysed roughly 75,000 children on the continent each year.
About Polio
Polio is an infectious disease, caused by the poliovirus, which is transmitted through contaminated water or food, or contact with an infected person. It may result in paralysis if the nervous system is attacked. There is no cure except the polio vaccine, which immunises the sufferer against the disease. Children below the age of five years are most vulnerable to polio disease, which sometimes leads to irreversible paralysis and death in rare cases, when breathing muscles are impacted.
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