“Could you patent the sun?” The acclaimed reply from Jonas Salk when asked whether he’d be patenting his breakthrough polio vaccine.
The poliovirus, which once killed or maimed hundreds of thousands of children every year and led to summer time lockdowns for children, is a step closer to being consigned to the history books.
Leadership from all levels of government across party lines, a historic public-private partnership that raised billions, millions of health workers reaching children across the region – from conflict zones to remote areas only accessible by motorbike or helicopter – and a culture of continual improvement were all critical to overcoming challenges and bottlenecks.
Across the region, health workers go village-to-village and door-to-door vaccinating children multiple times and offering health advice and support to the community. It’s a remarkable effort started by Rotary International, which in the 1980s – when there were hundreds of thousands of cases every year – made a global call for eradication.
Putting common humanity before that of the nationalistic endeavour is a worthy act which paid off for not only the US and Russia but for the whole world. With the African region hitting the golden number of zero cases of wild polio, the world’s attention will now shift to the remaining places where the virus hides. And the good news is that the two remaining countries that still register cases of wild polio, Pakistan and Afghanistan, have resumed polio vaccination after a brief suspension due to COVID-19.
While thanking and congratulating governments, health workers, civil society and all groups that have been part of this titanic struggle; it is important to use the momentum to invest further in health systems, as well as the health workforce, to protect people from this pandemic, and prepare them for future disease outbreaks.
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