End in sight for a disease that closed borders, shut pools and theatres - Sydney Morning Herald

Six years before polio vaccinations began in Australia, Dorothy Thomas recorded the news that parents feared.

Gillian Thomas, now 71 and the president of Polio Australia and Polio NSW, was paralysed in both legs and one arm.

Nearly 70 years after the polio vaccine was invented, elimination is close.

Gillian Thomas’ mother reported that her daugther Gillian, now 71 and president of Polio Australia, got polio when she was 10 months old in November 1950.

Australia will celebrate being officially polio free for 21 years next week, and about 40,000 people live with some form of paralysis caused by polio.

She had polio as a child, contracted before the vaccine was available.

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) is calling for a last big push to eradicate the disease.

Its members include the WHO, the Gates Foundation, Rotary International, Global Citizen, Gavi and Polio Australia.

“As Australia and the world begin to open up post-COVID, it is worth noting that neither smallpox nor polio has ever reached natural herd immunity,” Ms Meredith said.

That’s why it was so important to reach every last child, said Ms Meredith.

“Only once there are zero cases for two to three years, will the World Health Organisation start the certification that we are polio free,” she said.

Jonas Salk, who was an international hero when he invented the first polio vaccine, has opted not to patent his vaccine.