Polio: WHO declares all African countries to be polio-free

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A child is vaccinated against polio in Kenya (archive image)

After decades, Africa is free from wild polio. The independent Africa Regional Certification Commission (ARCC) said on Tuesday that the wild-type poliovirus had been eradicated in all 47 countries in the World Health Organization (WHO )’s Africa region. "Today is a historic day for Africa," said the head of the commission, Rose Leke, according to the German press agency.

According to the WHO, the wild poliovirus is only the second virus to be eradicated on the continent after smallpox around 40 years ago. "Now we have to end polio for good," said WHO Africa director Matshidiso Moeti. Because a rare form of polio, derived from vaccinations, still exists on the continent.

For decades, polio was considered an extremely great threat to children worldwide. The disease attacks the nervous system and can lead to paralysis within a short time, especially small children under five years of age are affected. In 1988 the world community decided to eradicate the disease. But the challenges in Africa were enormous: Conflicts, poor infrastructure, refugees and distrust of vaccinations made the work of the helpers difficult.

In 1996, the wild poliovirus crippled more than 75,000 children in Africa, according to the WHO. Every country on the continent was affected. It was only when South Africa's former President Nelson Mandela launched a campaign that same year that the fight against the disease in Africa had an effect. Millions of vaccinations have been given, according to the WHO around 1.8 million cases of paralysis due to polio were prevented.

But the global threat has not yet been averted - Pakistan and Afghanistan are still fighting the disease. "We have made significant strides in combating the disease, but unfortunately we have not been able to achieve polio eradication in the country," said Polio Eradication Initiative coordinator in Pakistan, Rana Safdar. So far this year, 67 cases of wild-type polio have been confirmed in the country, and 37 in Afghanistan.

Corona crisis makes vaccination campaigns difficult

The fight against polio is particularly difficult there because of Islamist extremists who promote the conspiracy theory that the West wants to sterilize Muslim children. Again and again, vaccination campaigns are overshadowed by violent incidents. This year, the corona crisis in particular made work more difficult: Because of the pandemic, vaccination campaigns were suspended in both countries; in Pakistan alone, it is estimated that around 40 million children were missing the important vaccination against the disease.

But polio could also be eradicated in these countries in the coming years. Michael Galway, assistant director of the polio program at the Gates Foundation, believes Afghanistan and Pakistan could also become wild polio free within the next two to three years. The Gates Foundation is one of the organizations fighting polio around the world. "Hopefully within the next decade we will end all polio."

Until then, there is still a risk in Africa that wild polio will return as a result of an imported case. "Polio somewhere (in the world) is a risk for every country," Galway said. Therefore, children continue to be vaccinated and the disease is pursued.

In addition, the vaccination itself can cause a certain form of polio in isolated cases. There are currently such cases in 16 African countries.

The success of the polio program is not just eradicating the disease in Africa, says Pascal Mkanda, who heads polio control at WHO Africa. In terms of personnel, infrastructure and expertise, the program is larger than any other health program on the continent. Helpers and infrastructure are already being used to fight the coronavirus. "That is the real legacy of the program. It will remain long after polio is eradicated worldwide."

kry / dpa