The increase in cases of measles, a highly contagious, but vaccine-preventable disease, is a stark reminder that all Member States should maximise efforts to achieve and maintain high vaccination coverage for all vaccine-preventable diseases.
Polio is an infectious disease mostly contracted by children. One in two hundred people develop incurable paralysis after infection. In 1955, a vaccine was invented and was introduced on a wide scale. Thanks to global efforts, polio was eliminated from the Western Hemisphere by 1994, and has greatly decreased worldwide.