World Polio Day 2012
USAID Bureau for Global Health sent this bulletin at 10/24/2012 11:57 AM EDT  |
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Polio is a vaccine-preventable disease that is more than 99 percent eliminated from the world. Today, on World Polio Day, there are the fewest number of polio cases in the fewest districts in the fewest countries than at any time in history. In 1988, when the global fight against polio began, polio raged in 125 countries. Today, there are only three: Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. India, long regarded as the nation facing the greatest challenges to eradication, has been polio-free for more than 18 months. Earlier this year at the World Health Assembly, 194 member states declared the completion of polio eradication as a “programmatic emergency for global public health." Ending polio is an important early milestone in the "Decade of Vaccines," a global vision and commitment to reach all children with the vaccines they need, and critical for child survival. A polio-free world will also lay the foundation for a better public health system that provides critical health services for children in the poorest and most inaccessible places. Learn more:
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| Photo Sources, left to right: Joydeep Mukherjee, Susheel Kumar Shrestha, Manju Kumar Shresthat. Courtesy of Photoshare. |
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