Polio moves toward global eradication

I am very excited about this great news. I personally have seen so many cases of Polio and I definitely understand how horrible is to have this disease. It makes a child cripple for whole life.
(CNN) reports-- "With a chance of winning an Oscar on Sunday, the director of "The Final Inch" says she hopes her documentary will shed light on the often over-looked issue of polio eradication.
The more doses of the vaccination a child receives, the better protected the child is from contracting polio.

The more doses of the vaccination a child receives, the better protected the child is from contracting polio.
"I felt like I was looking at something that no one in the world talks about," Irene Taylor Brodsky, who also helped produce the film, said in a recent interview.

Filming the short documentary was an "eye-opening experience," she said, particularly for one of her co-producers who had to wear a bulletproof vest during filming in Afghanistan.

"The Final Inch" is a testament of the health workers around the world laboring to make polio the second globally eliminated disease behind small pox, Brodsky said.

The 37-minute film, which is scheduled to air on HBO on April 1, has been nominated for an Academy Award in the best documentary short subject category. The awards ceremony is Sunday night.

The film focuses on "the final stages of a 20 year initiative" to eradicate polio around the world, Brodsky said.

Polio is a highly infectious disease which lingers in the poor water systems of India, Pakistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan.

The more doses of the vaccination a child receives, the better protected the child is from contracting polio.

"The Final Inch" focuses on the polio vaccine efforts in India and Pakistan.

Brodsky said she hoped to include Afghanistan, but that became impossible because of the threat of violence and social barriers. Producer Tom Grant had to wear a bulletproof vest while filming in the war-torn country."

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