The Global Picture

The 6 remaining polio-endemic countries are Nigeria, Niger, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Egypt.

Asia is very close to driving out polio, with only 93 cases in the region compared with 197 by the same date last year.

Yet Africa now faces risk of the largest polio epidemic in recent history - threatening thousands of children and jeopardising the goal of a polio-free world.

Fuelled by low immunity levels and spreading across borders to areas that were formerly polio-free, polio threatens to make a comeback.

Sub-Saharan Africa

The vast majority of global polio cases are now found in Nigeria - 544 out of 717 cases as of 22 Sept 2004.

In 2003, Nigeria and Niger were the only 2 countries in the region to have endemic polio transmission.

But with a suspension of immunisation campaigns in the Nigerian state of Kano, polio has spread to 12 other African countries - as far as Botswana (3000 miles south) and Sudan (1000 miles east).

Africa accounts for approximately 90% of all polio cases this year, with transmission approaching epidemic rates.

Synchronised Polio National Immunization Days (NIDs)

23 African nations are working together to synchronise mass immunisation campaigns reaching over 80 million children.

During 4 days, thousands of vaccinators will travel house-to-house to deliver the polio vaccine.

The success of polio eradication will depend on delivering the vaccine to the hardest-to-reach children, including those living in marginalised communities, conflict zones, nomadic groups or refugee camps.

For further information, see "Eradicating Polio" by David L. Heymann, M.D., and R. Bruce Aylward, M.D. - available for a fee on the New England Journal of Medicine website (Vol. 351, No. 13; September 23 2004).