His precedent and persistence in the face of polio shows us just how far we have come in curbing this disease and, despite its recent reemergence, the heights we may yet reach.
Indeed, countries like Angola and Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo face serious polio outbreaks because fighting has forced the suspension of immunization efforts in many areas.
Mr Bachchan has been the face of polio mass media campaigns for nearly a decade advising and persuading parents to ensure "do boond zindagi ki" (two drops of polio vaccine) to every child every time.
An iron curtain descended across Europe, not a steel one; it was the iron horse that took to the iron road, the iron lung that faced down polio.
The DRC has been battling public health crises all year ― this is the second outbreak of Ebola in 2018, and the country is also facing a polio outbreak and a yellow fever threat.
It has now been confirmed through laboratory tests that we are facing a polio outbreak in the country".
Especially critical are the needs of those living in the north of the country where harsh winter conditions and exposure to acute respiratory infections approach, while those living in the south face severe malnutrition, polio, diphtheria, malaria and dengue fever.
In the era when the nation was facing the dreaded polio epidemic, polio vaccine was developed and tested with government assistance, and distributed at low cost, creating an incredible gain for the entire world.
"There has not been a single case of polio in Sudan since June 2005, and we have arrived – in the face of many challenges – to a point where polio could soon be stamped out in Sudan," he said.
And in the last 18 months, Kim-Farley said yesterday from WHO headquarters in Geneva, "there hasn't been a single case of polio anywhere in the Western Hemisphere". That "is the start of Sabin's legacy," he said, saying WHO expects to "literally wipe polio off the face of the Earth" by 2000.
