Ireland is to increase its funding in the worldwide battle against polio by €500,000, it emerged today.
Minister of State for Development Co-operation and Human Rights, Conor Lenihan, announced the Government's total contribution to the Polio Eradication Initiative was being increased to €1.67 million for 2005.
Mr Lenihan said the final removal of polio would be one of the greatest public health achievements of all time.
"The Polio Eradication Initiative has done truly tremendous work, achieving a reduction in cases of more than 99 per cent. Today the global campaign to eradicate this illness is close to success," he said.
"Within a year, it should be possible to reach a situation where there are no new cases and there is a real prospect that in the coming two years the UN will be able to formally declare that the world is polio free.
"The key obstacle to success is funding and Ireland is responding to a request from the Polio Eradication Initiative to fill a gap in their current resources."
Ireland has financially supported the World Health Organisation's initiative since 2003.
Since it was launched in 1988, the number of polio cases has fallen from an estimated 350,000 cases in 1988 to just under 700 reported cases at the end of 2003.
Mr Lenihan said the final push to eliminate polio worldwide deserved Irish support and that support will be continued next year.
"The public want to see that aid can work. They want to see results for the Government's spending," he said. "The Polio Eradication Initiative is delivering those results."
Polio has been one of the most serious infectious diseases in world history. Although preventable by vaccination in infancy, it has still caused a major burden of illness up to recent times.
In the 1980s polio was present in over 125 countries in five continents and was responsible for paralysing more than 350,000 children each year, at which point the WHO launched its global initiative to eradicate polio in 1988.
The Polio Eradication Initiative is spearheaded by national governments, WHO, Rotary International, the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and UNICEF. Smallpox is the only other virus which has been successfully eradicated.