5 REASONS WHY WE MUST ERADICATE POLIO

TO IMPROVE LIVES - Today, 19 million people who would otherwise be paralysed by polio are walking, and 1.5 million people who would otherwise have died are alive.

TO INVEST IN THE FUTURE - If all eradication efforts stopped today, within 10 years, polio could paralyse as many as 200,000 children each year. A polio free world will be a healthier world for children everywhere.

TO IMPROVE CHILD HEALTH - Polio surveillance networks and vaccination campaigns also monitor children for other health problems, like vitamin deficiency and measles, so we can address them sooner.

TO LOWER HEALTH CARE COSTS - The global effort to eradicate polio has already saved more than $27 billion in health care costs since 1988, and expects to save $14 billion more by 2050.

TO MAKE HISTORY - Polio eradication will be one of historys greatest public health achievements, with polio following smallpox to become only the second human disease eradicated from the world.