NPR

From Polio To Poverty To Sex Ed: 9 Predictions For 2018

We asked doctors, researchers and aid workers to look into the future. Here's what they foresee.
Source: Malaka Gharib/NPR

What kind of year will 2018 be?

Our blog covers global health and development, so we're not going to make any predictions about North Korea, Middle East peace or who will design Meghan Markle's dress.

What we do have to offer: prognostications about a variety of issues, including the fight to wipe out polio, the dark side of drones and the #MeToo movement.

Wild polio will be finished by June but cases caused by vaccine will continue to crop up.

"For the wild virus, I hope to interrupt transmission in the next few months," says Dr. Michel Zaffran, who directs polio eradication at the World Health Organization. "Given the low, low number of cases we had in 2017 [just 20], we have an extraordinary chance to finish off polio in Pakistan and Afghanistan between now

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