Dear Editor,
Here in North America, polio has become a thing of the past, but not so in difficult-to-reach rural areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Care workers are risking their lives in a last desperate push into these areas to deliver the easily administered oral polio vaccine drops to vulnerable children, and even the military has stepped in to ensure that they do.
The World Health Organization eradicated smallpox in 1980 and now the goal is to eradicate polio by 2019. Canada’s share of the $1.5 billion needed to do this is just $150 million — a very affordable amount when you consider the cost of inaction. What an achievement it will be for all of us when polio is also history.
Paulie Duhaime
Calgary Alta.
