According to africanews.com, poliomyelitis, or polio, could be gone by 2018. This was according to the latest data from the World Health Organization.

Only seven cases of polio have been identified globally this year.

Polio can infect the nervous system and potentially cause total paralysis.

The strategic polio plan states that the way forward is to switch the current vaccination pattern to include doses of inactivated vaccine.

Joel Calmet, Senior scientific Director, Sanofi Pasteur said “Existing vaccination systems are based on what we call trivalent vaccine (Oral Polio Vaccine OPV). It is an oral, life-attenuated vaccine that has the three sources of Polio: types 1,2,3. Now the pattern is changing and to prevent risks linked to type 2, the vaccine will include a dose of inactivated vaccine (IPV).”

This new vaccines main objective, which is in mass distribution, is to cut risks of the contagion.

According to the article in the late 80s there were 350-thsands cases of polio. Now Pakistan and Afghanistan are listed as the only two endemic countries.

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