Margaret Harris, a spokeswoman for the World Health Organization (WHO), says wars have eliminated past efforts made to eradicate polio.

“We were on the point of eliminating it,” Harris told Al Jazeera. “But with conflicts breaking out around the world, all that work, all those millions of dollars … have been wasted because we have just gone backwards,” Harris said.

Cases of polio have declined by 99 percent worldwide since 1988, thanks to mass vaccination campaigns, and efforts continue to eradicate it everywhere.