WHO Certifies Nigeria, Africa Free Of Polio

The World Health Organization (WHO), yesterday, certified Nigeria, along with the African continent, free from wild polio.
The certification comes four years after the last cases appeared in North-East Nigeria.
“Thanks to the relentless efforts by governments, donors, frontline health workers and communities, up to 1.8 million children have been saved from the crippling life-long paralysis,” the WHO said in a statement.
The official announcement was made at 1500 GMT in a videoconference with WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and key figures, including philanthropist and Microsoft founder, Bill Gates.
“Happiness is an understatement. We’ve been on this marathon for over 30 years,” a local anti-polio coordinator for Rotary International, Dr Tunji Funsho, said.
He said it marked a crucial step in the total eradication of the illness at the global level.
“It’s a real achievement, I feel joy and relief at the same time,” he added.
Poliomyelitis, or “wild polio” is an acutely infectious and contagious disease which attacks the spinal cord and causes irreversible paralysis in children.
It was endemic around the world until a vaccine was found in the 1950s, though this remained out of reach for many poorer countries in Asia and Africa.
As late as 1988, the WHO counted 350,000 cases globally, and in 1996 said there were more than 70,000 cases in Africa alone.
Thanks to a rare instance of collective global effort and financial backing — some $19billion over 30 years — only Afghanistan and Pakistan have recorded cases this year: 87 in total.
Nigeria, a country with 200 million inhabitants, was still among the trouble-spots in the early 2000s.
In northern Nigeria, authorities were forced to stop vaccination campaigns in 2003 and 2004 by Islamic extremists who claimed it was a vast conspiracy to sterilise young Muslims.