https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/24/bill-gates-humanity-will-see-its-last-case-of-polio-this-year.html
Quote
According to Dr. Wenger, there are only 12 known cases of the wild poliovirus in existence today, in just two countries: Afghanistan and Pakistan. "In the last couple of years, we've seen unprecedented progress. In 2015 we could only find 74 cases; in 2016 we found 37, and then this year so far we've found only 12 in only two countries."
The reason: a mass immunization effort to orally vaccinate 2.5 billion children in 122 countries, bolstered by the 1988 launch of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
More reading:
https://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do/Global-Development/Polio
https://www.gatesnotes.com/Polio
A "good news" story :)
Wow! I was in Rotary and this was one of Rotary's biggest projects.
Is there a "viral reservoir" for polio? Meaning, if eliminated in humans can you stop vaccinating? The flu, for example, has a viral reservoir in birds. Some forms of encephalitis have a reservoir in horses. So you have to be vigilant no matter what happens to human cases
According to Wikipedia, humans are the only known natural hosts for poliovirus.
Fecking awesome.
And yet, not a peep on mainstream media, its just not sensational enough.
That's a great point Dras.
<time warp>
Africa declared free of wild polio in 'milestone'
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-53887947
Great news.
Those vaccine workers are heroic. If it happened in Nigeria, maybe one day Afghanistan and Pakistan will be Polio free too?