TY - JOUR JF - British Journal of Ophthalmology JO - Br J Ophthalmol SP - 681 LP - 681 DO - 10.1136/bjo.84.7.681 VL - 84 IS - 7 A2 - , Y1 - 2000/07/01 UR - http://bjo.bmj.com/content/84/7/681.abstract N2 - “Her most disturbing feature, nevertheless, is that she is slightly cross eyed, an ageless sign of erotic secrecy. The woman stares at you with the eyes of a basilisk. A forbidding vamp, la Dama De Elche, by breaking her classical purity with strabismus and barbarian features, sends us back to the elemental truth that all original earth goddesses are mysterious, two faced, tender and demanding, mother and lover, virgin and temptress.” Carlos Fuentes.Buried Mirror. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1992:27. In 1988 the World Health Organisation initiated a campaign to eliminate polio from the face of the earth. The target date for that goal is the end of this year, 2000. It now appears likely that this goal will not be met. Both medical and political problems obstruct the goal of polio eradication. Civil unrest in developing countries presents the political problem of how to carry out an effective vaccination programme in dangerous and unstable environments. The use of oral vaccine has a major disadvantage … ER -