World Polio Day October 24

World Polio Day October 24: Towards a polio-free world

October 24 also marks the birth of Jonas Salk, leader of a team that invented one of the two vaccines against polio, an occasion dubbed World Polio Day. In 1955, when his inactivated polio vaccine was first used, hundreds of thousands of children were being paralysed every year by a disease that caused lifelong paralysis and terrified parents because there was neither cure nor prevention.

Using oral polio vaccine, developed by Albert Sabin, polio has been reduced worldwide by 99% since 1988, following the global push to eradicate the polio virus spearheaded by national governments, the World Health Organization, Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and UNICEF.

This Global Polio Eradication Initiative is distinctive for the strong financial support it receives from both public and private sector donors.

Endemic polio survives in parts of four countries: eradication is technically feasible thanks to new tools and tactics that can more rapidly stop transmission of the virus in these areas. Mass vaccination campaigns have to continue to regularly supplement routine immunization to protect children both in endemic and polio-free areas: polio virus can travel long distances, and polio anywhere is a danger to children everywhere.

Success in eradicating polio will leave a humanitarian legacy for generations to come, and will provide the momentum necessary to achieve other ambitious health and development goals.

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Dr Marwah