2020 — Africa Declared Free of Wild Polio

On August 25, 2020, the World Health Organization certified Africa free of wild poliovirus — ending a 24-year war against a disease that once paralyzed 75,000 African children every year. The last case had been found in Borno State, Nigeria, in 2016, and the continent had to prove the virus was truly gone.

The "Kick Polio Out of Africa" campaign, launched by Nelson Mandela in 1996, sent health workers into war zones and insurgent territory to reach every child — some 220 million children a year. Africa became the fifth WHO region to defeat wild polio, a triumph built child by child.