ABSTRACT - Editorial, recalling end of scourge of smallpox, says no unvaccinated person is safe until polio is eradicated everywhere; calls on wealthy nations to give priority to funding On Oct. 26, 1977, in Somalia, a young man came down with a rash. It was smallpox. But the fellow, who survived, was remarkable, for he had the planet's last case of naturally occurring smallpox. Eleven years after smallpox became the first disease to be wiped off the face of the earth, health ministers from around the world voted to make polio the second. That goal is very close. But the campaign is short of money. Another $275 million is needed to finish the job by 2005 -- a sum that would be repaid manyfold if polio vanished.

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