AFRICA
A Huge Victory
Africa was declared to be free of wild polio Tuesday, a huge victory against the virus that paralyzed 75,000 children across the continent every year more than two decades ago, Sky News reported.
The African Regional Certification Commission certified the continent polio-free after declaring that no new cases have been found since some were identified in northern Nigeria more than four years ago.
Vaccination campaigns and monitoring children, however, continue in Nigeria’s Borno state, which has been described as the epicenter of the Boko Haram insurgency.
The announcement comes as the continent battles the coronavirus and an Ebola outbreak in western Congo.
Also, while wild polio has been eradicated, the continent still confronts a few cases of vaccine-derived polio – which is caused by a rare form of the virus that mutates from the oral polio vaccine.
Polio is a highly infectious viral disease that can cause irreversible paralysis and lead to death if it affects the breathing muscles.
There is no cure, but the polio vaccine can prevent a person from contracting it.
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