This World Immunization Week, the global goal of polio eradication is closer than ever, although more needs to be done to deliver a world free from the disease.
To deliver a polio-free world, every child in the remaining polio reservoirs- Pakistan and Afghanistan – must be vaccinated. The purple ink dot on this babies’ finger shows that they have received the oral polio vaccine28 April 2016 – WHO's World Immunization Week 2016 kicked off this week with the aim of raising international awareness on the critical importance of full immunization from childhood through to adulthood. One of the campaign’s major focuses is polio; incurable, but preventable with a simple vaccine. World Immunization Week is an opportunity to celebrate the progress marked by the drop in cases by 99.9% in the last 3 decades; but it also calls for increased momentum for the final push to overcome the last remaining pockets of the virus and wipe out the disease.