This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Health officials say the spread of polio from Nigeria into tenother countries in Africa threatens years of progress to end thedisease.

Polio weakens the muscles and nerves. Severe cases can cause lossof movement and sometimes death. Young children are most often thevictims. Polio is caused by a virus that is usually spread throughwater that contains waste from an infected person.

In nineteen-ninety-eight, the World Health Organization and otheragencies launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Thiscampaign has reduced new cases by ninety-nine percent. Polio isstill also found in Afghanistan, Egypt, India and Pakistan.

The goal has been to end polio by next year. But the W.H.O. saysfive times as many children in west and central Africa have gottenpolio so far this year compared to the same period last year. Aroundtwo-hundred children have been paralyzed in Nigeria since late lastyear.

That was when the current situation began. Some Islamic leadersin the state of Kano, in northern Nigeria, told the public that thevaccine that prevents polio was unsafe. They said it was part of aWestern plot to harm them.

Concern spread, and polio vaccination efforts halted. Soon, poliocases appeared in nearby countries that had been free of thedisease.

Before last year, Nigeria and Niger were the only countries southof the Sahara with polio. Since then, the virus has been found inBenin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Central AfricanRepublic. Chad, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Togo have also had newinfections. Scientists linked all these cases genetically toNigeria.

The same is true with the first case of polio in Sudan in morethan three years. Last month a child became paralyzed in the Darfurarea of western Sudan. Darfur already has a humanitarian crisis.Arab fighters supported by the government have been destroyingvillages of black African Muslims to crush a rebellion.

In Nigeria, Kano state officials announced in May that they wouldrestart polio vaccination efforts. Campaigns are being organized fortwenty-two African countries this October and November. That is theseason when polio cases are highest. The goal is to vaccinate morethan seventy-million children.

The VOA Special English Health Report was written by CynthiaKirk.