20. The Eradication Of Polio
What It Can Do: Improve Quality Of Life
Discovered By: N/A
Est. Cost: N/A
Polio is an infectious disease that affects the central nervous system and has been responsible for leaving countless children paralysed over the years, including close to 75,000 per year in Africa as recently as 3 decades ago. When the Polio endemic hit in 1988, 125 countries reported cases, with the African continent taking the biggest hit.
The Eradication Of Polio ©Kwame Amo / Shutterstock.com
Launched in 1996, the Kick Polio Out of Africa campaign was the beginning of the end for this infectious disease’s spread, and following a tremendous amount of work, in 2020, when Nigeria was, officially, declared free of Polio, Pakistan and Afghanistan were left as the only two countries left in the world where wild polio cases still existed – the eradication of Polio is almost complete.