Africa is now free of wild poliovirus, although vaccine-derived polio remains

The entire African continent is now free of wild polioviruses, even though the threat of vaccine-derived polio still remains. Wild polioviruses paralyzed 75,000 children across Africa every year, but the announcement yesterday from the African Regional Certification Commission for Polio Eradication said there had been no new cases in the past four years. Now only Pakistan and Afghanistan remain as countries with still-circulating wild polio. And even though eliminating wild polio in Africa is a significant achievement, at least 16 African countries are currently fighting an outbreak of a rare variant of the virus that is derived from the weakened virus in the oral polio vaccine. Vaccination campaigns have had to be halted in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, which may disrupt elimination efforts.