Polio left an estimated three hundred fifty thousand patients with paralysis in nineteen eighty-eight. They lost the use of their arms or legs. Some no longer could breathe without help.

FAITH LAPIDUS: The Global Polio Eradication Initiative includes national governments and the United Nations Children’s Fund. Another partner is America’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Still another is the volunteer service group Rotary International. Rotary members have worked against polio for many years. The group also has organized programs to raise money for the anti-polio campaign. Violinist Itzhak Perlman and orchestra conductor James DePreist gave their most recent Concert to End Polio in Chicago, Illinois.

Both musicians have survived paralytic polio. Mr. Perlman was four years old when the disease struck. Mr. DePreist was in his twenties. Today each man walks with the aid of crutches or other devices.

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BOB DOUGHTY: Scientists say three polio viruses cause wild polio. Type one is the most dangerous. It can infect many people in a short time. Type one has caused about eighty-five percent of all polio cases. Type two wild polio disappeared worldwide in nineteen ninety-nine. Cases caused by type three poliovirus do not spread as fast as polio caused by type one.

Today, polio continues to strike in Nigeria, India, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Officials say several problems make it difficult for these nations to stop the spread of polio.