World Health Organization declared Africa free of polio

World Health Organization has declared Africa free of polio, a landmark in a decades-long campaign to eradicate the notorious disease around the world.

Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2020

 Key-Points

A commission led by Prof. Rose Gana Fomban Leke, has certified that no cases had occurred on the continent for the past four years, the threshold for eradication of poliovirus.

Poliovirus now joins smallpox in the list of viruses that have been wiped out in Africa.

Polio is a virus which spreads from person to person, usually through contaminated water. It can lead to paralysis by attacking the nervous system.

Two out of three strains of wild polio virus have been eradicated worldwide.

More than 95% of Africa’s population has now been immunised. This was one of the conditions that the Africa Regional Certification Commission set before declaring the continent free from wild polio.

The vaccination campaign in Nigeria involved a huge effort to reach remote and dangerous places under threat from militant violence and some health workers were killed in the process.