The global fight to rid the world of polio, the largest public health programme in history, is said to be in its final stages.
Is eradication possible? Is it worth the enormous cost?
Newshour on the BBC World Service brought together public health experts with very different opinions to debate the issue.
Dr Bruce Aylward is director of the polio eradication programme of the World Health Organisation and Dr D.A. Henderson of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center led the WHO’s successful effort to eradicate smallpox.
Newshour also heard from Nigeria, one of the countries where the polio virus still thrives and from Gautam Lewis, a British pilot and a polio campaigner who suffered from polio as a young child in India. Gautam has spent the last few years assisting Rotary International in their vision for a polio free world.
Listen to the debate, courtesy of the BBC (25 mins 29 secs) / first broadcast 21 February 2009 ( we have added a slideshow to go along with the radio debate)
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