Polio Eradication - A Worthy Goal to Pursue?

I was reading this book today called "Better" by Dr Atul Gawande. The book discusses three core competencies to succeed in the field of medicine i.e. Diligence, Doing Right and Ingenuity. When explaining the importance of diligence in medicine or for any filed for that matter the author explains how the goal to eradicate polio in India is a prime example of human diligence.
During the research for his book, the author got a chance to see this diligence in action. There had been a case of polio in small South Indian town of Bellary in Karnataka State. Leading the operation of stopping the further spread of the disease, what the author calls a mop-up, was a WHO pediatrician Pankaj Bhatnagar. During the course of their travel to different villages to oversee the vaccination of all the kids for polio, one very difficult question always came up "Why this huge polio campaign when all the villagers need are clean drinking water, better nutrition for the kids, better sanitation facilities, etc? Is the money spent on the huge polio drive worth it when there were just 66 polio cases in the entire year of 2005? In addition the campaign to eradicate polio has cost about three billion dollars worldwide or about $600 per reported case of polio? Not to mention the thousands of man-hours working on vaccinating every child.
There are no easy answers to these questions. For one thing we would not be where we are i.e. only 66 polio cases in the year 2005 if not for the efforts that were put in by the scores of people and the money spent to eradicate this dreadful disease. Also we have to take into account the the close to 5 million cases of paralytic cases of polio that were averted due to these drives. Add to this the argument that Pankaj Bhatnagar makes "If you are starving, being paralyzed is certainly not going to help" and it brings into view what a worthy goal it is to pursue the total eradication of polio.
At times the goal of total eradication may seem grand, flawed and overly ambitious ,especially when we have already made so much progress in containing the disease. But it is this spirit of perfection that drives the human kind to great achievements. And without this spirit we would not be where we are today. And this spirit is best summed up by Dr Bhatnagar when to the author's question of "What you will do when Polio is eradicated?" he replies "Well there is always Measles". Thus just to keep alve this human spirit of perfection, the goal of total eradication is worthy of pursuing no matter the costs.