Oct. 24 marks World Polio Day, an international day aimed at raising awareness about the poliovirus — a debilitating and sometimes life-threatening disease that mainly affects children under five years old.
Great strides have been made towards eradicating polio, and cases have been reduced by 99.9% since the introduction of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988. Now just two countries, Pakistan and Afghanistan, remain endemic with polio. But nevertheless, awareness and immunization programs around polio remain critical to achieving polio eradication by 2023.