Through its Polio Eradication Initiative, WHO is spearheading a global partnership to eradicate polio by the year 2000. In just ten years the number of cases worldwide has fallen by almost 90% to 5 000 today. The Americas have been declared polio-free and polio has disappeared from Europe and China. Transmission is now restricted to a band of sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian subcontinent. As well as creating a polio-free world, polio eradication activities are strengthening our capacity to tackle other preventable diseases.

Information on the Polio Eradication Initiative can be accessed at www.who.int/gpv

© World Health Organization 1999
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