Margaret Harris, a spokesperson for the World Health Organisation (WHO), says wars have eliminated past efforts made to eradicate polio.

“We were on the point of eliminating it,” Harris told Al Jazeera. “But with conflicts breaking out around the world, all that work, all those millions of dollars … have been wasted because we have just gone backwards,” Harris said.

Cases of polio have declined by 99 percent worldwide since 1988, thanks to mass vaccination campaigns, and efforts continue to eradicate it everywhere.

“Most of polio, 75 percent, may well be asymptomatic — it’s like many viruses. The problem is that if you are one of those getting a severe form you could be paralysed for life or you can die,” she said.

Her comments came as a polio outbreak has been declared inside the Gaza Strip where more than nine months of onslaught have destroyed sewage and water systems. On Friday, the WHO said it was sending about a million vaccines to the Strip .

However, Harris said, to get children vaccinated, “we need a ceasefire”.