Could polio come back?

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) missed their goal of wiping polio off the face of the planet by the end of 2005. The problem rests with 4 countries (Nigeria, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan) where people can still catch the polio virus. Polio infection is serious--it attacks the central nervous system and can cause lifelong paralysis. The disease has become rare in the world; just 2,000 people contracted it last year. But the WHO and UNICEF are worried that inconsistent polio immunization campaigns in those 4 countries may lead to a resurgence of the disease, so they are pushing the governments responsible to step up their efforts. In a printed Reuters interview, David Heymann, the WHO's acting assistant director-general for communicable diseases, said no new deadline for polio elimination would be set. "We are at the end stages of the program. There is no need to retarget; what is necessary now is to finish," he said.

• Global Polio Eradication Initiative