AFTER the World Health Assembly (WHO) passed a resolution to eradicate polio worldwide in 1988, the Global Certification Commission led the way in establishing a formal process for certifying regions polio-free, asking each of the six WHO regions to set up a Regional Certification Commission.  That year, the WHO Regional Director for Africa created the Africa Regional Certification Commission (ARCC) for Polio Eradication: a 16-person independent body tasked with overseeing this process, and later on containment activities in the African region.  While certification of wild polio eradication is done at a regional, not national, level, countries can be declared as…