ROANOKE TIMES 

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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 20, 1993                   TAG: 9310200041
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: CHICAGO                                LENGTH: Short

NORTH, SOUTH AMERICA ALMOST FREE OF POLIO

Polio may be close enough to extinction in the Western Hemisphere that vigorous efforts to finish the virus off in the Americas could succeed within two to four years, health officials say.

The last identified case was in Peru in 1991, said Dr. Frederick C. Robbins of the Pan American Health Organization.

The United States has had no cases since 1979, except those caused by live virus vaccine and importation, he reported in today's Journal of the American Medical Association.

- Associated Press 


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