The African Regional Certification Commission has declared Africa free from wild polio.

Thousands of children in Africa were paralyzed by the virus some twenty-five years ago.

Polio usually affects children under five and in most cases results to irreversible paralysis. The patient might even die when his/her breathing muscles are affected. Polio is said to have no cure. Medics have however said that the polio vaccine protects children for a lifetime.

According to the independent body, the disease is now found in Afghanistan and Pakistan only.

Nigeria which accounted for more than half of the polio cases recorded worldwide in the past decade, I’d the last African country to be declared free from wild polio.

Photo Credit: Afric Panorama

Source BBC
By Moma Sandrine