One of the most devastating diseases known to man is smallpox. More people died from this contagious and sometimes fatal infectious disease than from any other disease in history. But in 1796, Edward Jenner, a country doctor in rural England, developed the smallpox vaccine. Jenner’s vaccine not only makes him the first person to successfully develop […]
Advances to eradicate polio, the viral disease that can affect a person’s nerves, leading to partial or complete paralysis, constitute good news. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over the past 30 years, 20 million volunteers have vaccinated more than 2.5 billion children globally against the disease, saving 16 million people from paralysis. In April […]
“11 August 2015 marks 1 year since the last wild polio case was detected on the entire African continent. A polio-free Africa would leave only 2 countries where polio transmission has never been interrupted: Pakistan and Afghanistan.” That’s the great news from the World Health Organization in its update: Africa advances toward a polio-free continent. On […]
Recently we received good news from the World Health Organization: on March 27th the world region that counts one-fourth of the population, South-East Asia, was certified as free of polio. This progress now means that 80% of people now live in certified polio-free regions. Polio (or poliomyelitis) is a viral disease that can affect a person’s nerves, leading […]
