Polio Eradication-Why just "this close"?

 
Rotary has had a global ad campaign with pictures of celebrities with fingers held an inch apart say "We're this close" to eradicating polio.  That campaign has gone on fore several years.  What has been the progress and why is the eradication effort stalled. First of all, 4 years ago there were 4 countries where polio was endemic.2 years ago, India was removed from that list and there have been no new polio cases reported in India for over 2 years. That is the good news.  The bad news is that in the other 3 countries in the last reported numbers from 2011 there has been an increase in polio cases over the number in 2010.  How can that be?
 
The 3 remaining countries where polio is still endemic are Pakistan, Afganistan and Nigeria. That alone gives a clue about what the problems might be.  In fact, there are 4 main barriers to completion of the goal of complete polio eradication. They are: geographical barriers, conflict, political change and poor infrastructure.  The geographical barriers are difficult terrain or poor maps coupled with finding nomadic populations.  The war in Afganistan has interfered with polio eradication efforts.  Political change has resulted in resistance from tribal chiefs to polio immunization efforts because they want other health issues addressed.  Poor infrastructure in these 3rd world countries just means that the healthcare assets we take for granted in first world countries is nonexistant in these countries. 
 
Why is all of this important to know and understand? The recent outbreak of polio in Syria demonstrates how polio can have a resurgence unless there is total eradication.  Continued vaccination efforts are vital to prevent the resurgence anywhere. It is estimated that it would take only 10 years for the number of new polio cases each year to reach 100,000 if immunization efforts were suspended.
 
There is more information under the Polio Plus Information menu item on the RB Sunrise website homepage.  For an overview of the current situation see the Rotary Polio Infographic link. For a more complete global outlook on polio eradication efforts, see the Rotarian's Guide to Polio Eradication link.