Africa defeats wild polio

No more polio in Africa - 7th September 2020

There is no more wild polio in Africa.

Polio is a very dangerous illness. Young children get polio. They can’t walk. It gets into the brain. 10 per cent of people with polio die. People get polio from other people. There is no treatment for polio, but there is a vaccine. A vaccine is a special medicine. It stops you getting an illness.

In 1996, there were 75,000 children in Africa with polio. President Nelson Mandela started a special plan: “Kick Polio out of Africa”. Millions of nurses went to all the villages in Africa. They gave everyone the vaccine.

Some people said the vaccine was bad. This slowed the plan down. Nurses needed parents to trust them. This took many years in some places.

The last country with wild polio was Nigeria. Nurses had to go to some villages in dangerous areas. Fighters killed some nurses.

Now, there is no wild polio in Africa. 95 per cent of Africa has the vaccine. Now, polio is only in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Polio could come back to Africa. Every child needs to get the vaccine. It is important to get the vaccine until there is no polio in the world.