by Ryan Hyland
Rotary joined its partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) to mark the first anniversary of a historic public health milestone: the World Health Organization’s African region being certified free of wild polio.
The anniversary was celebrated on 25 August during a WHO Regional Committee for Africa meeting, which also addressed current challenges to eradicating polio and new tactics to achieve a polio-free world.
Africa’s milestone has already benefited children’s health and public health across the continent. The infrastructure and innovations that helped the African region become free of wild polio are playing an important role in the COVID-19 pandemic response and are available to use in future public health emergencies. Polio workers also now conduct other routine immunizations, deliver medicines, and provide other health care services.
The achievement in Africa is the result of a decades-long effort by millions of Rotary members, health workers, government officials, religious leaders, and parents. Since 1996, when wild polio paralyzed an estimated 75,000 children across Africa, health workers have administered more than 9 billion doses of oral vaccine, preventing 1.8 million wild polio cases.
Rotary members have contributed nearly $920 million toward eradicating the virus in the region, advocated for support from their governments, mobilized communities around National Immunization Days, and conducted events to raise funds and public awareness.
Five of the WHO’s six regions, representing more than 90% of the world’s population, are now free of the wild poliovirus.