11/09/14

Is the world on track for polio eradication by 2018?

By: Lou Del Bello

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<div class="article-wrap">
<div id="article-introduction">
<h1>Is the world on track for polio eradication by 2018?</h1>
<h4>By: Lou Del Bello</h4>
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<p>Polio is a viral <a href="https://www.scidev.net/health/disease/">disease</a> that, until the 1980s, crippled an estimated 350,000 <a href="https://www.scidev.net/health/children/">children</a> every year. After a global campaign for polio vaccination, in 2012, fewer than 250 children were paralysed worldwide.<br />
 <br />
But the disease remains endemic in Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan, and political instability is causing a polio comeback in Pakistan among other nations.<br />
 <br />
SciDev.Net visited the Mérieux campus in Lyon, France, where the pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur works with the Global Polio Eradication Initiative to produce and deliver more vaccines at a cheaper price to meet the goal of polio eradication by 2018.<br />
 <br />
Travel to the Mérieux site and accommodation were paid by Sanofi Pasteur.</p>

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<p>This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/multimedia/polio-eradication-by-2018/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
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Polio is a viral disease that, until the 1980s, crippled an estimated 350,000 children every year. After a global campaign for polio vaccination, in 2012, fewer than 250 children were paralysed worldwide.

But the disease remains endemic in Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan, and political instability is causing a polio comeback in Pakistan among other nations.

SciDev.Net visited the Mérieux campus in Lyon, France, where the pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur works with the Global Polio Eradication Initiative to produce and deliver more vaccines at a cheaper price to meet the goal of polio eradication by 2018.

Travel to the Mérieux site and accommodation were paid by Sanofi Pasteur.