Michel Euler/AP

Since the middle of the twentieth century, polio has been on the fast track to being an extinct disease. When the cure was first found, the numbers of reported cases began to drop off dramatically. Since 1988, the number of countries reporting cases of polio has went from 125 nations to just four: Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan.

As far as Bill Gates in concerned, that is four countries too many that are still dealing with the disease.

Gates wants the illness to no longer just be a contained disease, but one that no longer exists. He said that the world is “on the threshold of eliminating polio once and for all.”

Recently, the illness has afflicted people in the four nations where it is still active, as well as Tajikistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Bill Gates believes that the recent reports are a sign that if the leaders of the world do not band together to take out the disease for good, all of the work that has already been done will be put at risk.

The Global Eradication Initiative has come up short in their funds by $720 million for 2011 and 2012.

Gates said that now is the time to work together to finish the job we started a half-century ago.

Gates said, “I’m betting money, reputation, energy, everything we have to help polio eradication this year.”

After meeting with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed of the United Arab Emirates last week, Gates announced that the prince of Abu Dhabi would donate $17 million.

David Cameron, the Prime Minister of England, announced that after meeting with Gates, his nation would be donating $62 million.

Gates himself will be donating $302 million this year via the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Gates is also intending to work closer with President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan to get more support for the Pakistani government to help eradicate the disease that is effecting the children of the Middle Eastern state.

As David Oshinsky, the author of Polio: An American Story said, “If you increase the number of unvaccinated children, you increase the chance that this virus will find new subjects. Polio’s only a plane ride away.”

Polio is no longer at the forefront of the minds of Americans as the disease is practically unheard of in the United States, but the illness still exists in the world. And as Gates, along with many others, knows, if we do not eradicate it for good now, there’s no telling of how strongly the disease might come back.

However, both the Afghani President, Hamid Karzai, and the Pakistani President, Asif Ali Zardari, have been highly criticized by the American government. In addition, many in Obama’s administration question just how much trust can be placed in the two men and their nations.

On the flip side, neither of the two Middle Eastern nations are too pleased with Obama’s plans to ship troops into their homelands. Obama looks to make the meeting his chance to explain his reasoning in entering the nations and to discuss the current governmental situations.

Another one of Obama’s goals is to convince Pakistan officials to not allow the Taliban to use Pakistani land to attack Afghanistan. The Taliban is making way to Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, which many in the United States government see as a reason for concern.

Over the previous eight years, the United States has provided Islamabad, Pakistan with $10 billion in aid. However, America is still weary on Pakistan’s position towards al Qaeda. The United States has both said good things of the Pakistani military and made accusations that it was assisting al Qaeda.

Obama is looking to add to that aid by providing $1.5 billion every year for the next five years to stimulate civilian life in Pakistan.

Congress has gone even farther. Senators John Kerry and Richard Lugar presented a bill on Monday that would provide $2.3 billion to Pakistan.

Despite the unhappiness with the Pakistani connections to the Taliban and al Qaeda and the Pakistanis lack of full devotion to removing both terrorist organizations, the Obama administration is still focused on changing things for the better for the nation.