LONDON, Jan 25: Polio can be contained in all but one place within three years, billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates said on Monday, adding that he would step up his investment in a global plan to eradicate the crippling disease.

In an interview, the founder of Microsoft, who now has a $34 billion foundation devoted largely to health projects in poor countries, said he and other donors would announce new donations in coming weeks which should help close a $700 million funding gap in the fight against polio.“The polio campaign requires about a billion dollars a year, and for 2011/2012, about $700 million of that is unfunded,” Mr Gates said. “I hope that a meaningful part of that gap is closed. We won’t get rid of it all in these next two weeks, but it would be tragic if the financing was the reason this thing failed.”

Polio, which spreads in areas with poor sanitation, attacks the nervous system and can cause irreversible paralysis within hours of infection. Children under five are the most vulnerable.

Polio is endemic in just four countries — India, Pakistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan —and there has been a 99 per cent reduction in cases since 1988, when WHO and its partners formed the Global Polio Eradication Initiative to fight it.

At that time, polio was endemic in 125 countries and caused paralysis in nearly 1,000 children every day.

“There’s no doubt that this last part (of the fight) is the hardest ... but we’re in the endgame here,” Mr Gates said.

“A continued commitment by the donors into those countries makes us think that, say, in three years we could be down to one place where it has never been stopped – and then we could just focus in on that.”

Mr Gates is travelling to Abu Dhabi later this week where he is expected to make a joint announcement with Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on funds for fighting polio in Afghanistan and Pakistan.—Reuters