In a major milestone in the battle to eradicate polio, it has been announced that two of the three strains of the disease have now been eliminated worldwide.
Rotary and its Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) partners announced that wild poliovirus type 3 (WPV3) has been eradicated worldwide.
WPV3 is only the third infectious human disease-causing pathogen to be eradicated in history, following smallpox and wild poliovirus type 2.
This achievement means that two of the three wild polio strains have now been wiped out, an important marker of progress against the disease.
The announcement comes on the heels of recent news that Nigeria has gone three years without a case of wild poliovirus, which means that the entire African region could be certified wild poliovirus-free in 2020.
For more information see the full article on the Rotary Great Britain & Ireland website.
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