.
Since 1988, global vaccine campaigns have led to a decrease of over 99 percent in polio
cases, with more than 16 million people saved from paralysis by the World Health
Organization’s estimate. Polio is now endemic in only two countries––Pakistan and
Afghanistan. They, too, were inching closer and closer to complete eradication.
But as the world sets its sights on COVID-19, polio has come to thrive on neglect. In
Afghanistan, polio arose in three provinces that had not reported cases of the virus in as
long as five years. The nation was only able to complete two polio vaccination campaigns
before COVID-19 took control, though it typically conducts up to ten per year. Since January,
Pakistan has reported at least 59 cases of the virus. The country’s medical authorities are
now scrambling to resume vaccination campaigns.
Because polio cannot survive for long outside the human body, it is one of the few diseases
that we can entirely eliminate. That is why this resurgence is so dangerous––and
heartbreaking. For as long as cases continue to spring up around the world, no matter howfew, polio is a threat
