A worldwide effort to eradicate polio by 2005 appears to be making great strides — since 1998 reported polio cases have dropped by 99 percent.
In 1988, 350,000 cases of polio were reported, but worldwide only 3,500 cases of the disease were reported, with all of those cases occurring in only 20 countries in Africa and Asia.
“Victory over the polio virus is within sight,” World Health Organization director-general Gro Harlem Bruntland told the Associated Press. Last year WHO managed to immunize 550 million children under the age of 5 against polio, but reaching that last 1 percent of cases may be difficult since they tend to occur in remote areas plagued by civil strife or in areas that will require massive vaccination efforts, such as in India, to ensure the disease is truly eradicated.
Still even with those obstacles to overcome, the WHO and other organizations are confident they can meet their goal of ridding the world of the disease by 2005.
Sources:
Polio eradication draws closer. The BBC, April 3, 2001.
U.N.: Worldwide polio eradication at 99 percent. The Associated Press, April 3, 2001.