On Mar. 27, 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) South-East Asia Region, home to a quarter of the world’s population, was certified polio-free today by an independent commission under the WHO certification process.

This was the fourth of six WHO Regions to be certified, marking an important step towards global polio eradication. With this step, 80% of the worldﾒs population lived in certified polio-free regions.