WHO Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland has said that with a “last, forceful campaign”, polio can be wiped out worldwide within two years. According to a WHO news release, she told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the world was “on the brink of eradicating this crippling disease”. An estimated US $370 million were needed to carry out the last essential vaccination campaign. Progress in polio eradication over the past 10 years had been remarkable and only three major areas of transmission remained: South Asia (Afghanistan, Pakistan, India); West Africa (mainly Nigeria) and Central Africa (mainly the Democratic Republic of Congo). The remaining campaign will focus on 14 countries and areas that have been hard to reach due to armed conflict or lack of central government infrastructure, Brundtland said. She noted truces had already been called in countries such as Afghanistan, Sudan and Tajikistan to enable vaccination campaigns to go ahead.
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