Africa eradicates polio - 7th September 2020

Africa has been certified polio-free, a historic milestone on the road to the global eradication of the disease.

Polio, a serious infectious disease that typically affects the under-fives, attacks the nervous system and brains of victims, sometimes leading to permanent paralysis. In one tenth of cases, the disease causes death by immobilising the muscles of the respiratory system, preventing patients from breathing. Transmitted person to person, often via contaminated water, polio is incurable. However, since 1961 it has been preventable through the administering of an oral vaccination.

With more than 75,000 African children paralysed by polio in 1996, South Africa's iconic President, Nelson Mandela, spearheaded the "Kick Polio out of Africa" campaign sending millions of health workers the length and breadth of the continent to administer the vaccine to the inhabitants of even the remotest village.

Part of the initiative involved combatting suspicion about the treatment and convincing dubious parents to permit their children to be vaccinated, which caused the immunisation efforts frequent setbacks. Eradication of the illness took decades in some communities due to unfounded mistrust of the vaccine.

Health workers faced significant challenges in Nigeria, the final country on the continent to be declared free from wild polio, as their efforts required them to travel to remote, militant controlled areas. Their mere presence in the area placed them in danger, and some health workers were killed for attempting to vaccinate people against the disease.

With more than 95% of the population having been immunised, the Africa Regional Certification Commission has now independently confirmed that Africa is now free from wild polio. Now, only Afghanistan and Pakistan continue to see wild poliovirus transmission.

However, the World Health Organisation has urged continued vigilance and cautioned countries against any complacency until global eradication has been achieved as the disease could easily be imported back into a polio-free country should its vaccination programme fail.