Unlike most communicable diseases in this series, poliomyelitis or polio seems to be within man’s control. As a viral paralytic disease, polio affected hundred of thousands of people a year all over the world, mostly small children. However, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) global efforts to eradicate polio has brought that figure down to less than a thousand cases a year. The success of WHO is a fitting tribute of what man can achieve in the fight against deadly diseases when the necessary resources and international cooperation are attained.

As recently as 1988, the WHO estimated that there were 350,000 people suffering from polio all over the world. During that year, WHO passed a resolution to eradicate polio by 2000. The move was inspired by a pledge from Rotary International's to raise $120 million toward immunising all of the world's children against the disease. Starting with the two areas where most polio cases were concentrated -- the Indian sub-continent and Nigeria -- the effort to eradicate polio moved swiftly and with great resolve. WHO's efforts have been impressive, as can be noted from the following year-by-year tally of worldwide polio cases: 1988: 350,000 cases; 1996: 4,074 cases; 1997: 5,185 cases; 1998: 6,349 cases; 1999: 7,141 cases; 2000: 2,971 cases; 2001: 498 cases; 2002: 1,922 cases; 2003: 784 cases; 2004: 1,258 cases; 2005: 1,998 cases.

On 18 July 2006, WHO issued its latest report on polio and it pegs the number of poliovirus cases worldwide at 741. These cases have been recorded in the following countries (sources): Nigeria (endemic) 539, India (endemic) 100, Somalia (importation) 26, Afghanistan (endemic) 19, Namibia (importation) 17, Pakistan (endemic) 11, Bangladesh (importation) 9, Niger (importation) 6, Ethiopia (importation) 6, Democratic Republic of Congo (importation) 4, Indonesia (importation) 2, Yemen (importation) 1 and Nepal (importation) 1.

Poliovirus, the causative agent of polio, usually enters the body through the mouth due to fecally contaminated water or food, infects the intestinal wall and proceeds to the blood stream and straight into the central nervous system where it causes muscle weakness and paralysis within a matter of hours. This killer disease can infect a person at any age but the great majority of victims, over 50 percent, occur in children between the ages of three and five.

It usually takes the poliovirus three to 35 days to incubate, from the time a person is first exposed to the virus until the first symptoms appear. Among the early symptoms of poliovirus infection are fatigue, fever, vomiting, headache and pain in the neck and extremities. Around 1% of unimmunized people develop paralytic complications, in some cases bulbar paralysis. Most infected people show no outward signs of the illness and, as such, are largely unaware that they have been infected. Once infected, however, virus particles are excreted in the feces for several weeks and are highly transmissible to others in a community.

Among polio sufferers, 90% show no or almost no symptoms or show symptoms that are indistinguishable from influenza; 9% have non-paralytic polio; 1% have spinal or bulbar polio, of which: 10% die, 50% recover fully and 40% are left with only partial recovery or permanent paralysis; 0.4% of polio patients who are left with permanent paralysis are afflicted in either or both lower limbs; quadriplegia or resipiratory paralysis occur on only 0.01% (1 in 10,000) of all polio patients.

Polio has been with mankind ever since recorded history began. Historians point to ancient Egyptian paintings that show healthy-looking people with withered limbs as among the first indications of polio’s existence. Some scientists believe that the celebrated Roman Emperor Claudius was stricken with polio as a child, which made him walk with a limp even in adulthood.

Among the most popular survivors of polio are Mia Farrow, actress; Sir Arthur C. Clarke, scientist and science fiction author; Yitzhak Perlman, violinist; Stanley Orr, Fleet Air Arm fighter ace; Ian Dury, rock musician; Jack Nicklaus, golfer; Francis Ford Coppola, film director; Wilma Rudolph, athlete, later Olympic gold medalist; Arthur Guyton, physiologist; Alan Alda, actor.