Africa has been declared free of wild polio by the World Health Organisation (WHO), a major step towards global eradication of a virus that once paralysed millions of children around the world and is now endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Polio is caused by a virus that damages the nervous system and can cause paralysis. It is usually spread through contaminated water. SA’s last case of wild polio was reported in 1989, according to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases...

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