'A momentous milestone': Africa declared free of wild polio after decades

Even as Africa grapples with the coronavirus pandemic, the continent has eradicated another disease: wild polio.
 

Africa was declared free of the virus on Tuesday, with no new cases reported in the last four years, the Africa Regional Certification Commission for Polio Eradication said in a statement. Polio, a disease that mainly affects children under five years of age, sometimes causing irreversible paralysis or death, is now only endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
 

“This is a momentous milestone for Africa,” said Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization’s regional director for Africa. “Now future generations of African children can live free