Main content

Can we eradicate polio?

It鈥檚 nearly 20 years since the deadline passed to wipe out polio globally. Despite some incredible success in combatting it, this crippling disease continues to blight lives. Why?

Despite heroic efforts to vaccinate against this crippling disease, why does it persist? The fight to eradicate polio is an amazing story: It began with a grassroots movement in the United States and led to a global campaign to wipe out a disease that can cause paralysis and even death. There is no cure, but countless cases have been prevented by an extraordinary campaign to vaccinate every child aged five and under. It鈥檚 an operation that requires access to some of the poorest and most remote regions of the world.

But polio was supposed to have been eliminated by the year 2000. Nearly two decades later, new cases are still springing up. Why? Neal Razzell examines the challenges and the triumphs in the effort to rid the world of polio.

Available now

24 minutes

Last on

Mon 30 Dec 2019 09:06GMT

Broadcasts

  • Boxing Day 2019 03:06GMT
  • Boxing Day 2019 04:06GMT
  • Boxing Day 2019 06:06GMT
  • Boxing Day 2019 07:06GMT
  • Boxing Day 2019 14:06GMT
  • Boxing Day 2019 15:06GMT
  • Boxing Day 2019 18:06GMT
  • Boxing Day 2019 20:06GMT
  • Boxing Day 2019 21:06GMT
  • Sat 28 Dec 2019 17:06GMT
  • Sat 28 Dec 2019 17:30GMT
  • Mon 30 Dec 2019 00:06GMT
  • Mon 30 Dec 2019 09:06GMT

Podcast