A story in Medical Xpress discusses the eradication of polio in Africa – officially declared polio-free on August 2020 – and how the campaign for its elimination reaped many other side benefits for public healthcare on the continent.
Polio, alongside smallpox which has now been eradicated worldwide, is one of the great success stories of vaccination: 350 000 people were paralysed by polio in 1988, and in 2019 only 175 people were.
The current effort started in 1996, when African heads of state resolved to eliminate polio on the African continent, and Nelson Mandela launched the “Kick Polio out of Africa” campaign. Collaborations between all sectors of civil society came together to achieve the goal. Vaccination is followed up with surveillance – 3 consecutive disease-free years are needed to certify eradication in an area. Polio was close to eradication 20 years ago, but vaccine hesitancy – a key concern for future COVID vaccination – was spread by misinformation and undermined the efforts.
Africa now has stronger public health systems thanks to the investments made, and developments such as new innovations to deliver vaccines and a renewed demand for vaccine services.
