With polio spreading rapidly through Muslim countries, public health officials increasingly are expressing frustration that wealthy Islamic nations are contributing so little to the effort to eradicate the disease, the New York Times reports.

Nearly $4 billion has been spent to eradicate the disease in Muslim countries since 1985, and public health officials are urgently trying to raise another $250 million to handle this year's outbreaks. But to date, the Persian Gulf states have contributed less than $3 million to the campaign. "It would be a good sign for Islamic countries to see other Islamic countries giving," said Dr. David L. Heymann, the World Health Organization director general's representative for polio eradication. "But they've come in more slowly than we expected."

The largest donors to the effort are Rotary International, which has contributed more than $600 million since 1985, and the United States, which has contributed more than $500 million, plus the use of staff and laboratory services from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Other major donors to the effort include Britain and Japan, which have given more than $250 million each, and the European Union, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, and the World Bank, which have put up more than $100 million each.

Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary general of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, an umbrella organization of fifty-seven Islamic countries, agreed that members "will have to increase our efforts" and said he would raise the issue again at the conference's meeting of foreign ministers in late June. In 2003 and 2004, the conference urged members and Islamic charities to donate, with meager results. Two years ago, six of the seven countries with polio were then members; since then, polio has spread to sixteen countries, most of them conference members.