Poliovirus Type 3 Declared Globally Eradicated – Only One to Go

This year’s World Polio Day brought forward great news: two of the three wild poliovirus species are now declared eradicated from the world, thanks to the announcement of the official end of wild poliovirus type 3.

According to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, a polio-free world would mean $14 billion in savings by 2050, adding that eradication efforts have already saved over $27 billion in health costs since 1988.

“The achievement of polio eradication will be a milestone for global health,” says Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, director-general of the World Health Organization and chair of the GPEI polio oversight board.

“This is a significant achievement that should reinvigorate the eradication process and provides motivation for the final step—the eradication of wild poliovirus type 1, ” adds David Salisbury, MD, chair of the Global Commission for the Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication, during the World Polio Day celebration in Geneva, Switzerland. “This virus remains in circulation in just two countries: Afghanistan and Pakistan.”