Agencies leading the global effort to eradicate polio say that intensified efforts and additional resources are needed for areas of Africa and the Indian sub-continent. But they say that, although up to 20 countries are still likely to have polio virus circulating at the end of 2000, the eradication initiative is on track to certify the world polio free in 2005.
The polio eradication initiative, launched in 1988, is led by the World Health Organisation, Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and UNICEF.
In a statement issued on May 15, Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland (WHO director general) emphasised the need for high quality surveillance, national immunisation days and house-to-house campaigns to reach every child in every country.
Ms Carol Bellamy (excecutive director, UNICEF) said that "days of tranquillity", when combatants agreed to lay down their arms in order to allow immunisation campaigns to proceed, must be observed in countries where armed conflicts were under way. "In the final drive to eradicate polio, the premium is on 100 per cent coverage. This will not occur unless urgent steps are taken to ensure access to every child in every area that is hard to reach and in every country where armed conflict makes the simple, life saving act of immunisation impossible," she said.