
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 25, 1990                   TAG: 9004250346
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

DOCTORS FORECAST END OF POLIO IN HEMISPHERE

International health officials predicted Tuesday that they probably will succeed in eliminating polio from the Western Hemisphere by the end of this year, a major step in a campaign to eradicate the crippling disease from the globe by the year 2000.

Polio, or poliomyelitis, caused by a virus in contaminated water and food, produced tens of thousands of cases of paralysis annually in the United States until the first effective vaccine was introduced in 1954.

So far this year, despite intensive case-tracking efforts, only three confirmed cases of polio caused by the natural virus have been found in the Americas, compared with 45 by this time last year, said Ciro de Quadros, regional adviser to the Expanded Program of Immunization for the Pan American Health Organization.

by CNB