Overview
On a much happier note Polio has taken a turn for the best and is far on its way to eradication, which we will hopefully see in years soon to come. Wild Polio is currently remaining in only 2 countries and 2 out of the 3 strains of Poliovirus have been completely eradicated in wild transmission.
Statistics
What does Polio look like today?
In 1988, the World Health Assembly passed a resolution to eradicate polio, leading to the establishment of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Cases due to wild poliovirus have decreased by over 99% since 1988, from an estimated 350 000 cases in more than 125 endemic countries, to just two endemic countries. In addition, polio vaccines have prevented an estimated 20 million cases of paralysis in children since 1988. Economic modeling has found that the eradication of polio would save at least US$ 40–50 billion, mostly in low-income countries.
In 1994, the WHO Region of the Americas was certified polio-free, followed by the WHO Western Pacific Region in 2000 and the WHO European Region in June 2002. On 27 March 2014, the WHO South-East Asia Region was certified polio-free, meaning that transmission of wild poliovirus has been interrupted in this bloc of 11 countries stretching from Indonesia to India. In 2020, Africa became the fifth region to be certified wild poliovirus-free. Of the 3 strains of wild poliovirus (type 1, type 2 and type 3), wild poliovirus type 2 was eradicated in 1999 and wild poliovirus type 3 was eradicated in 2020. The spread of wild polio has been eradicated in all but Pakistan and Afghanistan, however failure to eradicate polio could cause poliovirus to reappear around the world with an estimated 150,000-200,000 new cases expected every year within 10 years.