In 1988, just fifteen years ago, 1,000 children became sick with polio every day. Last year the disease struck fewer than 2,000 people in the entire year. So far in 2003, only 235 cases of paralytic polio have been reported. By the year 2005, it is hoped that the disease of polio will have been eradicated, making it only the second disease to be eradicated -- after smallpox. In a world convulsed by war and hatred, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative stands as a rare and inspiring example of what can be done when the world works together. In 2001 Sebastião Salgado photographed the polio campaign in five countries at high risk of new outbreaks or where polio was still endemic—the Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Pakistan, Somalia, and Sudan. With these photographs as the central component, PixelPress has developed, designed and produced a large-scale, multilingual, multimedia awareness/fundraising campaign to end polio around the world. This includes a Web site, traveling exhibition, poster series and now a trade book. Sebastião Salgado’s photographs used in this project are part of a movement among documentary photographers to not only witness the world’s problems, but to try and use their imagery to help solve some of them. ''We're close to the end,’’ says Sebastião Salgado about polio, ‘‘now we have to act to finish it.'' We at PixelPress have learned much from our collaboration with the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and its member organizations: World Health Organization, Rotary International, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and UNICEF. We hope that together we can erase polio from the face of our planet by the target date of 2005. BOOK PixelPress is pleased to announce the upcoming publication of The End of Polio book. The book will be published in the United States by Bulfinch Press/AOL Time Warner Book Group on October 1, 2003 in both hardcover and paperback. Books can be ordered at Amazon.com In addition to the photographs by Sebastião Salgado, the book features an introduction by UN Secretary General Kofi A. Annan, a central essay by Indian writer Siddharth Dube who was born on the same day and in the same hospital that his brother was diagnosed with polio. Dispatches from health workers around the world include firsthand accounts of the impact of the disease and the heroic efforts to vaccinate children living in some of the most difficult conditions imaginable. A comprehensive history of the disease is presented in the form of an illustrated timeline. Information on how to help, selected resources, and a short history of the funding of the campaign are also included. The English edition of The End of Polio book will be launched in the United States in New York and Washington D.C. in late September/early October. Lectures and book signings by Sebastião Salgado have already been scheduled at NYU and ICP. Please check back to our site for more details in the coming days or subscribe to our email bulletin for the latest information. The book will also be simultaneously published in Brazil by Companhia Das Letras, Italy by Contrasto and Portugal by Caminho. POSTER SERIES A fine art poster exhibition series on The End of Polio has also been developed by PixelPress in collaboration with Aventis-Pasteur and will become available later in the fall as well. EXHIBITION The End of Polio exhibition, curated and produced by PixelPress, has already traveled to 5 continents and continues to tour. The exhibition has been on display in New York; Berlin; Washington, D.C.; Cairo, Egypt; Nairobi, Kenya; Toronto; Lucknow, India and Brisbane, Australia at the annual convention for Rotary International. It will next be shown at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, MA next year. Check back to this site for future showings of the exhibition as they become confirmed. WEB SITE Sebastião Salgado’s photographs and information on the campaign to end polio can be seen online in the multilingual web site at www.endofpolio.org. Online donations to the polio campaign can be made directly on this site. If you have any questions on The End of Polio project or are interested in hosting the exhibition or placing bulk orders of the book, please email or call Ambreen Qureshi, Managing Editor, at office@pixelpress.org or 212-929-2160.