History of Polio
A disease once feared worldwide
In the early twentieth century, polio was one of the most feared diseases in the industrialized world, paralyzing hundreds of thousands of children every year. The vaccines developed in the 1950s and 1960s changed that almost overnight: within a generation, polio had been driven out of the countries that could afford to fight it.
A slower reckoning for poorer countries
It took even longer to recognize the danger children in poorer countries faced. Lameness surveys in the 1970s exposed how widespread the disease still was, and immunization programs began reaching children worldwide, including in Afghanistan.
A global effort takes shape
Rotary International launched a global immunization campaign in 1985, and in 1988 the World Health Assembly established the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). At the time, polio was paralyzing more than 1,000 children a day. Since then, 200 countries and 20 million volunteers have immunized more than 2.5 billion children, and case numbers have fallen from an estimated 350,000 a year to a small handful.
Two strains gone, one remains
Two of the three strains of wild poliovirus no longer exist anywhere on earth. Type 2 was last seen in 1999 and declared eradicated in September 2015. Type 3, last detected in November 2012, followed in *October 2019*. Only type 1 remains, and it survives in just two countries: Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The work still ahead in Afghanistan
Afghanistan has made real progress in eradicating the virus, however, it still exists in the country, particularly along routes that connect Afghanistan to Pakistan. As long as that is true, every child in Afghanistan remains at risk, and so does every child elsewhere in the world. Finishing the job means reaching the last unvaccinated children, even in the hardest-to-access communities, and not stopping until the chain of transmission is broken for good.
You can read more about the global effort to eradicate polio and find additional resources on: https://polioeradication.org