Last month the World Health Assembly adopted a new Global Polio Eradication Initiative Strategic Plan to limit further international spread of polio. The plan includes the Short Interval Additional Dose strategy, in which children are immunized at short intervals to more rapidly raise population immunity levels. The Strategic Plan aims to build on successes in endemic countries, such as Nigeria, where the number of polio cases has dropped by more than 99 percent in the last year - from 312 cases to just three. It will also target Afghanistan, India and Pakistan, where the disease still remains endemic.
- Clara Hill