New York Times (January 15, 2014)
After three years without a case, India “can now be declared polio-free.” This “victory is an important milestone in the global effort to eliminate polio,” but much remains to be done to achieve the U.N. Millennium Development Goal of eradicating the disease by 2015, which would mean the world could be declared polio–free in 2018. Unfortunately, 2012 brought backtracking. There were 350 new cases of polio, up from 213 in 2012, and these occurred in 8 countries, up from 4.
Tags: 2012, 2015, 2018, Disease, India, Milestone, Millennium Development Goal, Polio, Polio-free, U.N., Victory
LA Times (May 21)
“The world’s war on polio” has been ambitious and has almost succeeded. Less than 100 people were paralyzed by polio, which is now found only in Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan. “But there is a looming danger.” In countries where polio is long forgotten, immunity is weak. Unless we wipe polio away from these final three countries, “a renewed outbreak could cripple as many as 1 million people within the decade, many of them children,” according to U.N. epidemiologists.
