The number of WHO staff working in polio-stricken countries swelled from 200 in 1999 to about 1,600 in 2000. Polio is a highly infectious disease that usually strikes children under 5. It damages the spinal cord and brain, causing paralysis and sometimes death. It is transmitted by ingesting food or water contaminated by fecal matter of an infected person. Since the effort to eradicate polio began, cases have fallen from 350,000 in 1988 to 2,870 in 2000, a reduction of 99 per cent.
Success is particularly apparent in India, historically one of the worst places for polio.
In 1998 nearly 2,000 cases were identified, basically all over the country. In 1999 this got more concentrated to the very populous states. In 2000, only 265 cases were reported and so far this year, with an extremely top-notch surveillance system, only 10 cases have been reported. On Thursday, WHO officials disclosed the first polio cases in Europe since 1998, both in Bulgaria. Both children are members of Roma, or Gypsy, communities.