The World Health Organization (WHO) will certify the African continent "free" of the "polio" virus on Tuesday afternoon, four years after the appearance of the last cases in the north-east of Nigeria, a region devastated by a conflict against the jihadists of Boko Haram. "Thanks to the efforts of governments, healthcare workers and communities, more than 1.8 million children have been saved" from this disease, says the WHO in a statement released before this historic meeting, step crucial in the global eradication of this disease.
"To say I'm happy is an understatement"
The official announcement, via videoconference from 3:00 p.m. GMT, will bring together the Director-General of WHO, Ethiopia's Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, its Regional Director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, Nigerian billionaires and philanthropists Aliko Dangote and American Bill Gates.
"It's a great victory, a deliverance," says Dr Tunji Funsho, from the Polio Nigeria committee of the Rotary International association. "It's been more than 30 years since we launched this challenge. To say that I am happy is an understatement!", Rejoices this Nigerian doctor who has dedicated his life to this cause.
The UN preferred to wait four years
It normally takes three years without a declared case to obtain certification from the WHO, but the UN organization has preferred to wait four years this time, "to be 100% sure that there is no longer any danger", explains the doctor.
Caused by "wild poliovirus" (WPV), polio is an acute, contagious infectious disease that mainly affects children, attacks the spinal cord and can cause irreversible paralysis. It was endemic all over the world, until the discovery of a vaccine in the 1950s. The richest countries quickly had access to it, but Asia and Africa remained for a long time important centers of infection.