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The World Health Organization has declared Africa wild polio free.

The last recorded case on the continent was in Nigeria in 2016 and follows a decades-long battle to eradicate the disease.

Polio, a disease that mainly affects  children under the age of 5, causing irreversible paralysis and in some cases death, is now only endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In 1996, polio paralyzed more than 75,000 children across the continent. However since 1996 billions of oral polio vaccines have been provided, saving an estimated 1.8 million children from the disease and more than 95% of Africa’s population has now been immunized.

This week on Talk Africa we will explore the journey that led to this success.