WASHINGTON: The number of polio cases worldwide reached a record low in 2012, giving experts confidence that the disease can finally be eradicated, according to presentations made on Tuesday at a major US conference.

Just 177 cases were recorded globally through October 2012, down from 502 during the same period last year, said virologists attending the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in Atlanta.

But the experts said challenges in the fight against polio remain, citing a doubling this year of the number of cases in Nigeria, and persistent difficulties in Pakistan.

Pakistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan are the only countries where polio remains endemic. Experts are trying to eliminate polio from those places, making it only the second disease after smallpox to be completely eradicated.

Steven Wassilak, a polio expert at the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said new data from Pakistan shows that one of the two types of wild polio virus prevalent in the South Asian country is close to being wiped out.

“There have not been any Type 3 cases reported for six months, which is the longest gap in incidence there to date,” Wassilak said, according to a press release.

But Anita Zaidi, a paediatrician at Aga Khan University in Karachi, said wary parents are still refusing to allow their children to take part in vaccination drives — a problem that is not easily solved.—AFP