Wild Polio Returns in Africa

In August 2020, Africa was declared free of wild polio, with the last case recorded in Nigeria in 2016. As this chart showing the number of cases since 2000 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: “It’s 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’d have a reversal,”.

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.