Stop Transmission of Polio (STOP). The sign pictured in this 2000 image advertises the Pulse Polio Vaccination Campaign. It states that children up to 5 years of age should be given the polio vaccine, and was posted near the Eastern Railway station in Gorakhpur, India, which was an active supporter of the Polio program. Many forms of information dissemination were employed in the polio eradication campaign, including word of mouth, festivals and rallies, doctor patient discussions, and, as it was in this case, the use of signs describing the polio eradication campaign protocols. Though polio was eliminated from the Americas in 1994, the disease still circulates in Asia and Africa, paralyzing the world's most vulnerable children. In a continually shrinking world, polio and other vaccine-preventable diseases remain only a plane ride away. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative, spearheaded by the World Health Organization, Rotary International, the CDC and UNICEF, was begun in 1988. That year, an estimated 350,000 children were paralyzed with polio worldwide; in 2004, polio cases had fallen to just over 1,200 cases globally. The Initiative's success will be a triumph of international co-operation, attesting to our ability to unite across borders and differences to conquer global afflictions. Uttar Pradesh in northern India.
