It’s been one year since the last polio case was reported in Africa. If the continent keeps this up, it could be declared polio free by 2018.
A volunteer receives a trial Ebola vaccine at the Centre for Clinical Vaccinology and Tropical Medicine in Oxford, southern England January 16, 2015.
Eddie Keogh/Reuters
Prior to the 1970s, almost all Phase I and II drug trials were conducted on prisoners. Our standards have gotten better since then, but still need revision.
Polio is still not adequately controlled in Pakistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan.
Wen-Yan King/Flickr
Polio (poliomyelitis) is a viral disease that can lead to incurable paralysis. The World Health Organisation is coordinating a programme to eradicate this disease from the face of the earth, and we are…
Poliomyelitis is a devastating, highly infectious viral disease. It is spread from person to person or through poor sanitary conditions. It can kill those infected or result in permanent paralysis to the…
A child is vaccinated against polio during a three-day nationwide campaign to eradicate polio, in Karachi, Pakistan, May 2014.
EPA/SHAHZAIB AKBER
The US government has told a group of local health educators that it will no longer use immunisation programs as a cover for espionage. But the damage from previous such programs is difficult to undo…
There is an enormous gap between the effects and consequences of science, and how much scientists consider these consequences. This is dangerous, but there is something we can do about it. There is no…
Armed conflict remains the major obstacle to ridding the world of this devastating disease.
James Gordon, Los Angeles.
As if the children of Syria had not suffered enough, the news of an outbreak of polio (poliomyelitis) signals that even more suffering lies ahead. The polio virus invades the nervous system and can kill…
The World Health Organisation has launched a huge immunisation programme to tackle the first suspected cases of polio in Syria for 14 years. War in the country has seriously affected health services and…
An innovative approach to mobility in Uganda.
The Advocacy Project
Disabled people are severely marginalised and among the poorest in developing countries. Having a disability increases the risk of poverty, and being poor also increases the risk of getting a disability…
Bill Gates is in Australia as part of efforts to secure funds for global health initiatives, particularly polio and malaria eradication.
Gates Foundation
Global health campaigner Bill Gates is in Sydney today to lobby prime minister Julia Gillard to spend more money on global health, particularly the fight against malaria and polio. But while money may…
The vaccination of 370 million children worldwide has averted five and a half million future deaths.
Save the Children UK/Flickr
We can end absolute, extreme poverty within 20 years, according to Geoffrey Lamb, president of global policy and advocacy at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. That means the number of people living…
The Nigerian commissioner for health of Bauchi state, Dr Sani Malam (L), administers a polio vaccine to a Nigerian child during the launch of the national immunization drive in Nigeria on February 5, 2013.
EPA/DEJI YAKE
The murder of nine female health workers involved in child immunisation on February 8 in Kano (the largest city in northern Nigeria) is a chilling reminder that saving children’s lives is not a goal shared…
An Afghan health worker gives polio vaccine drops to a child in Nangarhar, Afghanistan, 19 November 2012.
EPA/Abdul Mueed
The Guardian recently reported the death of a female volunteer in a polio vaccination program in Kapisa province, Afghanistan, who was shot six times and later died in hospital. The shooting has rightly…