Hub Management Team

🎄 GHHG Advent Calendar: #24GlobalHealthWins2025

To mark the tradition of Advent calendars, we are opening a new “door” each day until 24 December, sharing global health wins that brought progress and hope in 2025. Follow along as we highlight the momentum, resilience, and collective action shaping a healthier world. 🌍✨

🔔 Door #3 – 🌐 Polio Nears Eradication

📉 Global efforts against polio are paying off as cases fall to record lows: As of September, only 28 wild polio cases were reported worldwide – a dramatic drop from 99 cases in all of 2024 🦠.
🌍 Pakistan and Afghanistan, the last endemic countries, recorded their lowest numbers ever, marking unprecedented momentum.
🗣️ At a recent WHO forum in Pakistan, experts highlighted that eradication is now “within reach” but warned that dropping our guard at this stage would risk a dangerous resurgence.
⚠️ Although circulating vaccine derived polioviruses (cVDPV) cases are lower overall than in 2024, the WHO Polio Emergency Committee notes a rise in new outbreaks of two rare vaccine-derived strains in several countries, which remains a cause for concern.
🔎 With increasingly sensitive surveillance and ongoing vaccination campaigns, the world is close to eradicating polio – but the last mile still demands unwavering commitment 💪.

📘 Missed our guest article on Germany’s Polio Dilemma: Leadership at the Last Mile? Read it here:  https://www.globalhealthhub.de/en/news/detail/germanys-polio-dilemma-leadership-at-the-last-mile

Source: WHO; The Global Polio Eradication Initiative