Word: polio
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...door of each house. Parwanna Begum steps from behind one of those doors and adds today's date to the list, followed by a fraction: 2/3. Out of three children under the age of five in the household, Begum, a local health worker, has vaccinated two against polio. The third is out playing. Begum will have to come back tomorrow, because one child missed in the nationwide vaccination campaign means a hole in the net the world is trying to throw over the crippling disease...
...This year, health workers are the closest they have ever been to eradicating polio?a virus that in 1988 was paralyzing 350,000 children a year?largely due to the efforts of hundreds of thousands of volunteers like Begum participating in a global vaccination program. In 2003, only 784 cases were reported worldwide. But a recent surge of new infections in Africa is raising fears that wiping out the disease may be just beyond humanity's grasp. Three years ago, Africa was on track to meet the World Health Organization's (WHO) objective of a polio-free planet...
...Although the virus that causes polio is highly contagious, bringing it under control is relatively straightforward because a cheap vaccine has long been available. "There is no magic to this," says Dr. Tumseh Salah, who is managing the Swat Valley vaccination program. "You immunize enough kids, and you can stop the virus." Indeed, the eradication program has been a spectacular success. In its 16 years of operation, the number of countries where polio remains a chronic problem has fallen from 125 to just six: Egypt, Niger, Nigeria, Afghanistan, India and Pakistan. (In all of Asia, just 34 cases were reported...
...million Number of children in 10 African countries targeted in a polio-vaccination drive condemned by Islamic leaders in Nigeria as a U.S. plot to sterilize Muslims or infect them with...
...Number of cases of polio...