Health ministers from nine Asian and African countries where polio still occurs have been meeting in Geneva to speed up efforts to eliminate the virus.
A campaign directed by the World Health Organisation has eradicated the illness from more than 100 countries in the past 15 years. But it continues to occur in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Niger and Egypt.
And it has recurred in countries where it was thought to have been eradicated, such as Benin and Cameroon.
In recent months a major setback occurred when some Islamic clerics in northern Nigeria claimed the polio vaccine could cause infertility. This led to the halting of the local immunisation schemes, with some neighbouring countries becoming reinfected.
