Polio

Eradication is within reach.

Thanks to UNICEF and partners' global immunization and vaccine efforts, polio has almost—but not quite—disappeared. In 1988 there were 350,000 cases; in 2012, only 223. In 2014, India joined the ranks of the polio-free, a major achievement thanks to lifesaving polio vaccines, and in 2015, Nigeria reached a milestone when it went a full year without a single case of polio.

But the highly-infectious, crippling and often fatal disease, to which children under 5 are particularly vulnerable, remains endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and is known to resurface in countries in conflict, where health systems are disrupted. Continued support for vaccinations remains vital.