In August 2020, Africa was declared free of wild polio, with the last case recorded in Nigeria in 2016. As this chart showing the highlights, it had been a hard fight to reach the historic milestone. At the time, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization regional director for Africa commented: 鈥淚t鈥檚 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鈥檇 have a reversal,鈥.
With one recorded case in 2021, and seven so far in 2022, the start of such a reversal would appear at first glance to be underway. Africa still retains its polio-free status so far though, as the initial cases detected in 2022 were not indigenous having been traced back to a strain circulating in Pakistan in 2019. The potentially fatal virus, which mainly affects children under 5 years old and can cause irreversible paralysis, is currently only endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan. There is no known cure, however a properly administered vaccine will protect children for life.
