WHO: Asia on track to halt polio spread by year-end

India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, the last three Asian countries where polio is endemic, are on track to halt its spread by year-end after halving cases in 2004, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday.

The number of cases of the paralyzing infectious disease in the three countries fell to 186 in 2004, down from the 336 recorded the previous year, the United Nations agency said.

"Similar momentum this year should put an end to the transmission of polio in this particularly crowded corner of the world," it said in a statement.

Health ministers and senior health officials from the three countries took part in talks Friday at the WHO, which also hosted a meeting of African ministers last month.

Asian ministers and the WHO hammered out a plan for massive and repeated polio immunization campaigns in the "few remaining affected districts" of the three countries, the statement said.

Globally, the number of polio cases rose to some 1,185 last year, with Africa accounting for all the increase, according to figures released last month.

Polio, which mainly affects children under age five, is caused by a virus and can cause irreversible, total paralysis in a matter of hours.