Perhaps an end to Polio!

Source: "$635 Million Is Donated to Fight Polio," David Brown, The Washington Post, January 22, 2009.

Rotary International, the Gates Foundation and the governments of Germany and the United Kingdom have agreed to a $650 million donation to the global campaign to eradicate polio.

About $6.17 billion has been spent so far on the eradication effort. The United States has contributed $1.4 billion over the years and is the biggest single donor.......

The number of cases worldwide last year was 1,625 -- about 500 more than in 2007 and three times the number in 2001, the best year of the campaign. Nevertheless, the incidence of the disease has been cut by 99 percent since the campaign began in 1988, when about 350,000 cases a year were recorded........

WHO has a plan for using the money over the next five years, during which it hopes eradication will be achieved.

Comment: I see three possibilities:

• polio will be eradicated,
• polio will be resurgent and the world will be faced with epidemics on a regular basis;
• most of the nations of the world will continue to spend great amounts of money to immunize their populations while there will be a few areas in which polio remains endemic.

The first is the only reasonable alternative both from a humanitarian and an economic perspective.

I knew someone well who suffered for decades from the aftermath of polio, and no one else should ever have to face such difficulties!

My thanks to the donors! JAD