Only 12 known cases of wild poliovirus exist in the world today, leaving many health experts to believe the disease could be completely eradicated by the end of 2017, reports CNBC.
The World Health Assembly launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988, which supported a massive immunization campaign to vaccinate 2.5 billion children in 122 countries. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation joined GPEI as a major supporter in 2007, donating nearly $3 billion to polio eradication efforts, Gates Foundation spokeswoman Rachel Lonsdale told CNBC.
Since the GPEI's launch, global polio cases have decreased 99.9 percent. In 2015, health officials recorded 74 cases. A year later, there were only 37 cases. Now, there are just 12 recorded polio cases in two countries: Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"If things stay stable in the conflicted areas, humanity will see its last case of polio this year," Mr. Gates wrote in his foundation's 2017 annual report, according to CNBC.
If Mr. Gates' prediction is correct, polio would be the second disease — behind smallpox — to be globally eradicated.
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