The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7249 p673
17 May 2003

This article
Reprint
Photocopy

News summary

Related websites
WHO (more)

Polio now on the verge of extinction according to WHO

The battle against polio worldwide is being won and the World Health Organization is refocusing its efforts on the last remaining pockets of endemic disease.

Immunisation campaigns in 93 countries where transmission of the virus has been halted are to be revised in order to concentrate on the seven remaining polio-endemic countries and six countries considered to be at high risk of reinfection.

The seven countries where the disease remains endemic are India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Egypt, Afghanistan, Niger and Somalia. Nearly all the world’s polio cases — 99 per cent — are in just the first three. Other countries considered to be at high risk of reinfection are Angola, Bangladesh, Congo, Ethiopia, Nepal and Sudan.
Concentrating efforts on these 13 countries means that an extra 297 million doses of vaccine and $35m of resources should be brought into the target zone.

If the campaign is successful, polio will be the first disease to be wiped out in the 21st century and only the second after the eradication of smallpox in 1979.