The polio vaccine 50 years later: This year could be polio's last gasp

Elimination is closer than ever, and experts work to maintain momentum until the disease is finally gone.

By Victoria Stagg Elliott, AMNews staff. April 11, 2005.

In 1999, Timothy Jones, MD, a family physician and deputy state epidemiologist for the Tennessee Dept. of Health in Nashville, left his family and went to Yemen. He went to provide polio vaccinations to children in this Middle Eastern nation that is one of the poorest in the Arab world.

"It was a very, very difficult country to work in," he remembered. "But it was a great opportunity to be a part of one of the most historic achievements of public health."

His work was part of an overarching march toward the global eradication of polio. In many ways, the prize is now closer than ever.

Since 1988, the year the World Health Assembly pledged to eradicate polio, the number of countries in which the disease is endemic plunged from 125 to six. And this month, just as the world marks the 50th anniversary of the announcement that the Salk vaccine worked, experts say global eradication could be accomplished by 2005's end. "We have a pretty good chance this year to do it," said Oliver Rosenbauer, World Health Organization spokesman.

The final steps, however, may be the most difficult.

Several prior deadlines for eradication have been missed, and, although 784 cases were recorded in 2003, the lowest ever, that number went up to 1,263 in 2004. This increase has been primarily driven by Nigeria. There, rumors that the vaccine could damage fertility and was being used to spread AIDS led to a boycott. In turn, the boycott led to the re-emergence of the disease there that spread to 14 other African nations in which polio had previously been eliminated.