Africa to be declared free of ‘wild’ polio

Health authorities are expected to declare the African continent free of wild polio.

The declaration would leave Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan as the only countries thought to still have the virus, with vaccination efforts against the highly infectious, water-borne disease complicated by insecurity and attacks on health workers.

The announcement by the African Regional Certification Commission for Polio Eradication comes after no cases have been reported for four years. Polio once paralysed some 75,000 children a year across the African continent.