Tightening the noose on the polio virus

Not long ago, the virus that causes the paralyzing, often deadly disease polio circulated freely worldwide, crippling or killing half a million people every year, including thousands in the U.S. and Canada.

The mid-20th Century development of the Salk and Sabin polio vaccines gave mankind the tools needed to eradicate this dreaded disease. It's taken 7 decades, but the worldwide campaign to wipe out polio, spearheaded by the UN's World Health Organization and UNICEF, Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and The Gates Foundation, is closing in on the polio virus' last strongholds, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0! Let's end this terrible disease

Credit RIBI Image Library

So far this year, polio has only sickened five children, three in Afghanistan and two in Pakistan. At the same time, 116 million were vaccinated. With such an active monitoring and vaccinating program, the total eradication of polio is in sight.

That will represent just the second human disease to be complete eradicated. Another deadly viral scourge, smallpox, was completely eradicated nearly four decades ago through a similar worldwide campaign.

The eradication of polio will represent a second great achievement for mankind.