Despite what the WHO said years back, polio has NOT been eradicated. In fact, unrest in the world is helping the previously fewer cases to grow toward an epidemic in some areas. In 2012, Nigeria reported 122 cases, Pakistan 58, and Afghanistan 37. Today’s news tells us that at least 10 cases have been reported recently in Syria. What do these countries have in common? War. Violence and fear among people drives them into lifestyles that allow them simply to survive. People get spread out into less accessible (and, they hope, safer) areas, and the last thing on their minds is to get immunized against polio. Under these circumstances, even countries with mandatory immunization–and Syria is one of them–find that avoiding gunfire and bombs trumps compulsory programs that no one is enforcing.
Maybe it’s because I contracted polio during the time when America was recovering from WWII. Or that I see so many preventable diseases (malaria, pneumonia, antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria, etc.) spreading during and right after a war. Or that the most common victim of such diseases is someone living in poverty and the ravages of war. But it seems clear to me that a major preventative of polio and other communicable diseases is peace.