When this programme was made in 2000, the world celebrated the 20th anniversary of the global eradication of the dreaded smallpox disease. Encouraged by this tremendous achievement, a global campaign was launched in 1988 to likewise eradicate the crippling polio virus. And as recently as October 2019 the world was able to announce that another medical milestone had been reached in this campaign: the worldwide conquest of wild poliovirus type 3. In this programme we look at these efforts, and the state of vaccine technology in the first year of this millennium.
Producer: Laura Durnford
Broadcast: December 2000