PROGRESS TOWARD GLOBAL POLIO ERADICATION

Significant progress is being made towards the global eradication of p oliomyelitis by the year 2000. The strategies recommended by the World Health Organization for polio eradication are as follows: maintaining high routine immunization coverage; conducting nationwide mass immuni zation campaigns; building effective, laboratory-based surveillance fo r acute flaccid paralysis; and conducting localized immunization campa igns directed at the final reservoirs of virus transmission. Sixty-thr ee countries have conducted nationwide anti-polio immunization campaig ns. Three hundred million children were immunized in these campaigns w orldwide in 1995. The reported incidence of poliomyelitis has fallen b y similar to 80% since the global target was set in 1988, and the geog raphic range of polio is being restricted. The major challenges for ac hieving eradication are establishing effective surveillance systems in all countries and mobilizing the resources needed to fully implement the recommended strategies in the 67 countries in which polio remains endemic.