The Lancet Infectious Disease
Mar 2010  Volume 10 Number 3  Pages 139 – 212
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/issue/current

Newsdesk
Polio eradication within 5 years now a real possibility
Kathryn Senior

Last year was a significant one for polio eradication. Real progress was made simultaneously in northern Nigeria, on the Afghanistan–Pakistan border, and in the remaining pockets in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in India, cutting the number of cases worldwide to 1597 (correct as of Feb 2, 2010). The new bivalent oral polio vaccine (bOPV), which targets type 1 and type 3 polioviruses, was licensed in late 2009 and has been in use since December. Starting in February, March, and April, 2010, multiple mass immunisations are planned in all four remaining countries where polio is endemic, at the start of a 3-year intensive effort to finally halt polio transmission worldwide.