In a statement, a spokesman from the World Health Organization said that only a handful of polio cases have been reported in Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan in the past year, and that a final push will take place to immunize each nations’ children over the coming days. The two countries are the last in the world where polio is endemic, so 70,000 healthcare workers have focused their attention on immunizing 10 million children in that area of the Middle East over the next week. All told, more than 12 million doses of the lifesaving vaccine are available, according to the WHO, and that their main concern is pushback from locals, who have been resisting immunization for reasons that include fear and religious beliefs. “This is the lowest toll of cases in history,” Dr. Michel Thieren, the WHO’s representative for Pakistan. “We expect to be within months of polio elimination in Pakistan.”

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