India gets WHO seal on victory over polio
In a major boost to the country’s fight against a dreaded disease that cripples many lives, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has taken off India’s name from the list of polio endemic countries.
This has been done in view of the remarkable progress that India had made by being polio free for the past one year. Not a single polio case has been reported in the country since January 13, 2011 when the last case was found in Howrah (West Bengal).
This is a major milestone in the history of polio eradication and a major achievement for India immunization programme as the number of polio cases has come down from 1,50,000 in 1985. In 2009 the country had reported 741 polio cases, more than any other country in the world. But in 2010, there were just 42 cases out of the 1,352 reported across the world.
With India achieving zero-transmission status, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria are the only three countries remaining with wild polio virus in the world.
The WHO had informed the government about this on Friday which Union minister for health and family welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad divulged in the presence of prime minister Manmohan Singh at the inauguration of a polio summit in New Delhi. However, India still has to wait for two more years to get a certificate of complete eradication of the virus and that will come only if no fresh cases are reported by 2014.
“The battle has been won but the war against Polio is not yet over. There is going to be zero tolerance for any new polio case and such a case will be declared as a public health emergency,” Azad said.
According to Azad, 27% of the global expenditure on polio eradication has come from India’s domestic resources. “More than 99% coverage of children in the two remaining endemic states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh is unprecedented,” Azad said and added that the aggressive mop up response against polio has enabled to stop further transmission of the virus.
“This gives us hope that we can finally eradicate polio not only from India but from the face of the earth,” the PM said. He also emphasized on the need for nutritious food, safe drinking water, proper sanitation and education in addition to universal access to safe vaccines. He said that we need to accelerate our efforts to achieve goal of providing universal access to health care at affordable cost for citizens. Education and health will be the key priorities of the Twelfth Five Year Plan, he emphasized.
Mindful of the risks of indigenous transmission and import from other endemic countries all states bordering the neighbouring countries have been asked to strengthen surveillance for early detection of any imported polio virus. Special booths have been established in the bordering areas like Wagah border and Attari railway station in Punjab and Munabo train station in Rajasthan, to ensure that all children under 5 years of age coming from across the border are given polio drops.
In a major boost to the country’s fight against a dreaded disease that cripples many lives, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has taken off India’s name from the list of polio endemic countries.
This has been done in view of the remarkable progress that India had made by being polio free for the past one year. Not a single polio case has been reported in the country since January 13, 2011 when the last case was found in Howrah (West Bengal).
This is a major milestone in the history of polio eradication and a major achievement for India immunization programme as the number of polio cases has come down from 1,50,000 in 1985. In 2009 the country had reported 741 polio cases, more than any other country in the world. But in 2010, there were just 42 cases out of the 1,352 reported across the world.
With India achieving zero-transmission status, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria are the only three countries remaining with wild polio virus in the world.
The WHO had informed the government about this on Friday which Union minister for health and family welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad divulged in the presence of prime minister Manmohan Singh at the inauguration of a polio summit in New Delhi. However, India still has to wait for two more years to get a certificate of complete eradication of the virus and that will come only if no fresh cases are reported by 2014.
“The battle has been won but the war against Polio is not yet over. There is going to be zero tolerance for any new polio case and such a case will be declared as a public health emergency,” Azad said.
According to Azad, 27% of the global expenditure on polio eradication has come from India’s domestic resources. “More than 99% coverage of children in the two remaining endemic states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh is unprecedented,” Azad said and added that the aggressive mop up response against polio has enabled to stop further transmission of the virus.
“This gives us hope that we can finally eradicate polio not only from India but from the face of the earth,” the PM said. He also emphasized on the need for nutritious food, safe drinking water, proper sanitation and education in addition to universal access to safe vaccines. He said that we need to accelerate our efforts to achieve goal of providing universal access to health care at affordable cost for citizens. Education and health will be the key priorities of the Twelfth Five Year Plan, he emphasized.
Mindful of the risks of indigenous transmission and import from other endemic countries all states bordering the neighbouring countries have been asked to strengthen surveillance for early detection of any imported polio virus. Special booths have been established in the bordering areas like Wagah border and Attari railway station in Punjab and Munabo train station in Rajasthan, to ensure that all children under 5 years of age coming from across the border are given polio drops.
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