This is a piece I published on October 23 but, with apologies, I forgot to post it here. Now is a good time to re-visit the topic, though, because on Tuesday many nations and non-profit organizations will be meeting in Abu Dhabi to announce their pledge amounts for the final push to eradicate polio from the Earth. It’s an incredible opportunity, to go from the introduction of the first effective vaccine in 1955 to the eradication of the disease in a single lifetime. But if we fail, we could be back to 200,000 cases a year–kids looking like the photo above–within a decade.
by Richard Conniff/Scientific American
In January 2014 an American public health worker was visiting northern Nigeria to observe a polio prevention campaign by local health workers. It was a big, festive event with a marching band to bring out parents and children for their immunizations. But the American visitor and the local program manager soon found themselves being drawn away from the action, down deserted streets to an area still under construction. They were being led by a young girl.
“And what was happening was that she was Read the rest of this entry »