Polio is near total eradication

Almost 50 years after the discovery of the polio vaccine, experts think total eradication of the disease is near.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization, which are involved in the global eradication program, say in 1988 when their effort began, there were 350,000 polio cases in 125 countries.

By 2004 that number was down to 1,263 cases which were in Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Niger, Afghanistan and Egypt, the type 2 polio virus has not been found since 1999.

Health officials say one strain of the virus that causes the paralysing disease already has been wiped out and they're closing in on the other two.

A new vaccine will be given in May in Egypt where only type 1 polio exists, the single-strain vaccine will be given along with the standard three-strain polio vaccine in India, where types 3 and 1 are found.

The single-strain vaccine was developed with grants of $10 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Health officials hope the disease will be completely eradicated by the end of 2006.