The hope of eradicating polio from the planet by the end of 2012
is in serious doubt, a monitoring committee is warning, because
the virus is resurgent in places where it had disappeared and
cases continue to rise in Pakistan, one of four countries where
it is endemic. "It is on a knife-edge," said Sir Liam Donaldson,
the UK's former chief medical officer who now chairs the
independent monitoring board of the Global Polio Eradication
Initiative. "Success would be a terrific achievement. To
eliminate only the second global epidemic disease [after
smallpox] would be a tremendous public health triumph, but
failure to do so would have enormous consequences. It is a
disease that not only affects individuals and families but
erodes economic prosperity in some of the countries affected."
Donaldson considers the continued transmission of polio to be "a
global health emergency". Eradicating the disease, he said, "is
still feasible but more urgency is needed to complete it. The
plan to stop transmission by the end of 2