The recent identification of 480 new polio cases in India effectively puts paid to South Asia's plan to make the region polio free by 2005. Nepal is close to being declared a polio-free country-there has not been a polio case detected here since 2000-but the open border with India and the unchecked movement of people between both countries could change that. Countries need to have no identified polioviruses for three consecutive years to be certified polio-free. The World Health Organisation has set a timeline to eradicate polio from the world by 2005, but the virus continues to cripple more than 500,000 annually in 125 poorer countries of the world.