NEW DELHI/GENEVA/NEW YORK – In a strong turn-of-the-millennium appeal, the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF today urged leaders of countries where the final battle to eradicate polio is being waged to give full co-operation to the global effort.

"We are on the verge of an historic public health victory--the eradication of poliomyelitis--a disease that has caused untold suffering to millions of children in all parts of the world," stated Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General of WHO, and Ms Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF, in a New Year's letter to 30 heads of state in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. They said the ultimate success of the drive to eliminate the disease now hinges on efforts underway in those 30 countries, many of which are affected by conflict or are 'reservoirs' of poliovirus where transmission remains particularly intense.

Begun in 1988, the global initiative to eradicate polio by the end of the year 2000 is spearheaded by WHO, Rotary International and UNICEF.

To win the battle against the disease, Dr Brundtland and Ms Bellamy urged heads of state in the 30 countries to provide leadership for extra immunization activities, to allocate sufficient resources to support National Immunization Days and routine immunization and surveillance activities, to mobilize support for these efforts from the national to the community level and to facilitate truces in areas affected by conflict.

In New Delhi, on her first official visit of the new century, Dr Brundtland said India, which hosts 70 per cent of the world's remaining polio cases, was key to successfully eradicating the disease world-wide by the end of the year 2000. Dr Brundtland paid tribute to India's phenomenal efforts towards polio eradication at the launch of the final campaign to eliminate the disease.

"In the year 2000—the target for polio eradication—we have a window of opportunity to defeat this disease forever," said Dr Brundtland at the launch of the Final Push for Polio, attended by over 300 delegates including Dr Shanmugham, India's Union Minister for Health, ambassadors from key polio-endemic countries and representatives from core agencies in the initiative.

Dr Brundtland was joined by 30 children who have polio—representing each of the 30 remaining polio-endemic countries—who each lit a lamp of remembrance for polio victims.

In New York, Ms Bellamy urged a renewed international effort to wipe out the last traces of the disease. "As long as a single new case of polio exists, children everywhere are at risk of this disease," she said. "We must all work together to bequeath to our children a polio-free world in the 21^st century."

Rotary International President Carlo Ravizza reiterated the support of 1.2 million Rotarians world-wide to the eradication effort. In India alone, Rotary mobilized 150,000 volunteers for national immunization days.

In their New Year's letter to the 30 heads of state, Dr Brundtland and Ms Bellamy said important obstacles had already been overcome in the fight against polio: "Countries and territories have set aside their differences for the sake of the health of their children."

"Warring factions have laid down arms and allowed administration of polio vaccine to all children, irrespective of their origins and affiliations. What is most needed now is the personal commitment of political leaders in the 30 remaining polio-infected countries to see the effort through to a successful conclusion."

• The number of polio cases has fallen from an estimated 350,000 in 1988 to some 5,200 reported cases in 1999;
• The proportion of the world's children living in polio-infected areas has dropped from 90 per cent to less than 50 per cent;
• Polio has been eradicated from the Americas, Europe, the countries of the Western Pacific, and much of the Middle East and it has disappeared from most of northern and southern Africa.

Major partners in the polio eradication initiative include technical agencies (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention); private foundations (United Nations Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation); development banks (World Bank); donor governments (Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK and USA), and corporate partners including De Beers and Aventis Pasteur.