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HomeUK NewsAfrica to be declared free of wild polio following decades of work

Africa to be declared free of wild polio following decades of work

Achievement comes after a Nigerian vaccination drive, with the last cases of the wild virus in Africa recorded four years ago

Africa is expected to soon be declared free from the wild polio virus, after decades of work by the combined efforts of international health bodies, national and local governments throughout the continent, as well as community volunteers and survivors of the disease.

Four years after the last known cases of the wild polio virus in northern Nigeria, the Africa Regional Certification Commission (ARCC) is soon expected to categorise the continent as being free of the virus, which can cause irreversible paralysis in some and can even cause death.

This comes after German doctors who have been treating Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, say tests indicate that he had been poisoned, Navalny is a known critic of Vladimir Putin.

This achievement is the result of a campaign to vaccinate and monitor children in Borno State, which has been seen as the final front of the wild polio eradication efforts in Africa, as well as the heart of the jihadist insurgency throughout Nigeria.

“It’s been a momentous, massive undertaking, with amazing persistence and perseverance, coming in the face of moments when we thought we were just about there, then we’d have a reversal,” the World Health Organization (WHO) regional director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, said.

She said that the WHO had played a central coordinating role within the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, which is a union of national governments and local leaders that have been working with Unicef, Rotary International, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as with millions of volunteers within communities across the continent.

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Improved surveillance throughout Africa and tackling violent levels of vaccine scepticism that fuelled deadly attacks on health workers in the continent, as well as the inclusion of polio survivors within eradication efforts were the key factors in wiping out wild polio, said Moeti.

Africa to be declared free of wild polio following decades of work
Dr Matshidiso Moeti

“I would really like to pay tribute to polio survivors, who have joined in the fight, who have helped in sharing their experiences of disability with polio and the impact this has had on their lives,”

In 1996, 75,000 children in Africa were paralysed by polio.

This comes after the UK government is reportedly in the “final stages” of consultations with teachers and councils about having students wear face coverings throughout Scottish schools while moving between classrooms.

The fight now is to improve the lives of survivors, said Moeti.

“This moment underlines the importance of paying attention and better prioritising the needs of people with disabilities in the African region. Health is not just the absence of a disease that can kill, it is a complete sense of wellbeing,” she said.

co-founder of Nigeria’s Association of Polio Survivors, Musbahu Lawan Didi, campaigning for the rights of those with polio, said: “It is incredible that what we have started years ago has built these results. As polio survivors we are the happiest and believe we’ll be the last polio survivors in the country.”

But he added: “Ninety percent of polio survivors in Nigeria live in poverty. Many of us are trawling the streets to survive, begging. It should not be so.”

Eve Cooper
Eve Cooper
I've been writing articles and stories for as long as I can remember and in the past few years I've had the fortune of turning that love & passion for writing into my job :)

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