Today, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), in the largest public-private partnership in healthcare, has reduced polio by 99 percent.

The two organizations first came together in 1988, a time when wild poliovirus was endemic in 125 countries and about 350,000 people, primarily young children, were paralyzed by polio annually. Since then, it is estimated that 10 million children globally have been saved from paralysis.

According to global polio surveillance data from November 4, 2015, 51 cases of wild poliovirus have been reported this year. Thirty-eight of those cases occurred in Pakistan and the remaining 13 cases appeared in Afghanistan.

The Initiative’s goal is to ensure a polio-free world for future generations by distributing a polio vaccine to every child.

According to NPR, the oral polio vaccine may go down in history as one of the most powerful public health tools of modern times. The vaccine is …