April 1959: Bottles containing the polio vaccine.(M. McKeown / Getty Images)

Polio has been around since pre-history causing paralysis and even death for generations. By the middle of the last century it paralyzed or killed up to a half million people each year.

In the 1950s Dr. Jonas Salk invented a vaccine for polio.By 1988, cases began dropping. An initiative was launched to try to wipe out polio altogether and cases of the disease continued to drop, but still the disease hangs on.

Two years ago, Ukraine saw an outbreak of polio that infected several people and paralyzed a child. Last year, an unvaccinated young person caught polio and became paralyzed in New York. Last month, four African countries reported new cases of polio and these cases are not alone.

As World Polio Day approaches, some experts say the effort to vaccinate people against polio can never stop if the disease is to be kept under control.

Dr. David Pate, former CEO of St. Luke's Health System, Kevin Richert, senior reporter and blogger with Idaho Education News and Janice Fulkerson and Cornelia Sprung from Rotary District 5400 join Idaho Matters to talk more.