Women Were Key to Eradicating Wild Polio in Africa. Can They Do the Same for COVID?

October 26, 2020

(Marie Clare) – The answer might just lie with women, who played an enormous role in eradicating wild polio across Africa. World leaders, scientists and civil society can more effectively respond to COVID-19 by harnessing the power of women in local communities globally, says Sona Bari, a polio expert with the WHO. Decades ago, wild polio paralysed more than 75,000 children across the African continent every year. In 2012, rates in Nigeria — the continent’s most populated country — accounted for more than half of the cases worldwide. While Europe has been polio-free since 2002, and the United States since 1979, wild polio remained active in parts of Africa until four years ago before being officially declared free of the virus in August 2020. Spikes continue in Afghanistan and Pakistan to this day