Sunday, May 24, 1998

Conquering polio

In all the hoopla about the year 2000, there may be one development truly worth celebrating: Health workers may have succeeded in eradicating polio.

For the generations who have come of age since the 1950s, when the first successful vaccines were developed, it is hard to imagine the fear inspired by the disease, which generally struck children (hence its name "infantile paralysis") seemingly at random.

The epidemics would come in the summer. Pools, playgrounds and theaters would be closed. Children would be kept at home to avoid crowds and strenuous activity because being overtired was thought to invite attacks of the disease.

The results were cruel, a lifetime in leg braces or encased in a huge respirator known as an "iron lung," a phrase that has disappeared along with polio. The disease was declared eradicated from the Western Hemisphere in 1991.

Since worldwide eradication efforts began in 1988, health experts estimate the incidence of polio has dropped 90 percent, but eliminating the last 10 percent will be the most difficult. Polio still festers in war-racked, anarchical lands like the Congo, Somalia and Afghanistan.

Still, World Heath Organization officials believe they can eradicate the disease in time for the millennium. WHO estimates that in the five years after 2000, it will take $1 billion to insure polio is extinct. The cost is worth it, and the victory a worthy end to the 20th century.