On Aug. 25, 2020, the independent Africa Regional Certification Commission (ARCC) for Polio Eradication officially declared that the 47 countries in the UN World Health Organization (WHO) African Region are free of the virus, with no cases reported for four years.

Since then, the WHO reported polio eradication efforts have spared up to 1.8 million children from crippling life-long paralysis, and saved approximately 180,000 lives. This marked the eradication of the second virus from the face of the continent since smallpox 40 years ago.