Will polio be eradicated worldwide?
World Health Organization declares Africa free of wild polio cases.
Wild polio used to paralyse and disfigure tens of thousands of children every year.
Much of the world is now free of the disease, including Africa.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the success four years after the continent’s last naturally-occurring polio case in Nigeria.
Polio is still endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
What are the challenges to eradicating the virus? And are there lessons for the battle to contain COVID-19?
Presenter: Imran Khan
Guests:
Dr Hamid Jafari – Director, Polio Eradication at the WHO’s eastern Mediterranean region
Dr Derek Gatherer – Virologist and lecturer, Lancaster University
Dr Susan Mercado – Strategic adviser for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Asia Pacific