Africa has been declared wild polio-free by an independent body – the African Regional Certification Commission.
Two out of the three strains of the wild poliovirus have been cleared worldwide. On Tuesday, Africa was declared free pf the last remaining strain of wild poliovirus.
Polio is a virus that spreads from person to person, usually through contaminated water.
Polio usually affects children under five years, sometimes can lead to irreversible paralysis by attacking the nervous system. Death can occur when breathing muscles are affected by the virus.
According to a study, more than 95% of Africa’s population has been immunized. This was one of the ground rules that the African Regional Certification Commission laid before declaring Africa free from wild polio.
Nigeria is the last African nation to be declared free from wild polio, having registered more than half of all global cases of polio cases less than a decade ago.
Twenty-five years ago thousands of children in the continent were paralyzed by the virus.
In 1996 poliovirus paralyzed more than 75,000 children in Africa – every country was affected.
The same year Nelson Mandela launched the “Kick Polio Out of Africa” program, mobilizing millions of health workers who went village-to-village to hand-deliver vaccines.
The program was backed by a coalition of groups including Rotary International which had spearheaded the polio vaccination drive from the 1980s.
Since 1996 billions of oral polio vaccines have been provided, averting an estimated 1.8 million cases of wild poliovirus.
Polio is now only found in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
At the moment there is no cure for the disease bu the vaccine protects children for life.
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At the moment only the vaccine-derived poliovirus remains in Africa with 177 cases being identified this year.
It is a rare form of the poliovirus that mutates from the oral polio vaccine and can then spread to under-immunized communities.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified a number of these cases in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, and Nigeria.
