$5.5 Billion World Strategy Hopes to Eradicate Polio by 2018 (Video)

Officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) said that they are hoping to end most polio cases by late next year and eradicate the disease by 2018. According to USA Today, the question seems to be if they can raise enough money to finish the work.

A six-year global strategy will cost approximately $5.5 billion, and require increasing security for vaccine workers who have come under attack in hard-hit countries.

And with the number of cases hitting a record low at 223 per year, WHO officials, the Gates Foundation and other polio-fighting groups said Tuesday there may be a chance of success.

According to the History of Vaccines, polio is cause by one of three types of poliovirus-all members of the Enterovirus genus. These viruses can spread through contact between people, by nasal and oral secretions or by contact with contaminated feces. When the virus enters the body through the mouth, it multiples along the way to the digestive tract. In about 98 percent of cases, polio is a mild illness with no symptoms. But in 1 to 2 percent of people who contract polio, they may become paralyzed and in severe cases in the throat and chest, death can result.

It is likely that polio has plagued humans for thousands of years. An Egyptian carving from around 1400 BCE depicts a young man with a leg deformity similar to one caused by polio. Polio circulated in human populations at low levels and appeared to be a relatively uncommon disease for most of the 1800s, but reached epidemic levels in the early 1900s.

The Journal of the American Medical Association writes that the first polio vaccine was found in 1953 by Jonas Salk, a medical scientist who worked at the University of Pittsburg.

Want to find out more about eradicating polio? Check out this video, courtesy of YouTube.