New Infections Reduced By 99% Since 1988, UN Says.(Brief Article)

2001 APR 18 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) --

A United Nations-led program has reduced the number of new polio infections by 99% since 1988, United Nations officials say, but wiping out the disease will cost $1 billion and send health workers to some of the world's most dangerous places.

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative has resulted in a drop in recorded polio cases to just 3,500 in 2000, compared with 350,000 cases recorded in 1988. The initiative sent health workers door to door, or sometimes from mud hut to mud hut, immunizing 550 million children under age five in 82 countries last year.

"The key now is urgently accessing and vaccinating the children we haven't been able to reach because of war, isolation, and lack of infrastructure," said UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) executive director Carol Bellamy. "It's essential that warring parties and international mediators give priority to cease-fires that allow us to get polio vaccine to these children."

Polio is a crippling and sometimes fatal disease that attacks the central nervous system. The initiative's goal is to eradicate polio worldwide by 2005. The virus is now found in only 20 countries, mainly in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, compared to 125 ...