The World Health Organization has officially removed India from the
list of polio-endemic countries. Ghulam Nabi Azad, India's minister of
Health and Family Welfare, made the announcement at the Polio Summit
2012 in New Delhi on 25 February. Azad said that he had been informed of
WHO’s action by its director-general, Dr. Margaret Chan. (click below to read more)
"It is a matter of satisfaction that we have completed one year
without any single new case of polio being reported from anywhere in the
country," said Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the summit,
which was organized by the government of India and Rotary International.
"This gives us hope that we can finally eradicate polio not only from
India but from the face of the entire mother earth. The success of our
efforts shows that teamwork pays."
India's last reported case was a two-year-old girl in West Bengal
State on 13 January 2011. Before polio eradication can be certified in
India, it must go two more years without another case of the disease.
Polio remains endemic in only three countries: Afghanistan, Nigeria, and
Pakistan.
Bivalent oral vaccine
Until 2009, India accounted for nearly half the number of the
world’s polio cases. A chief factor in the country’s success has been
the widespread use of the bivalent oral polio vaccine, which is
effective against both remaining types of the poliovirus. Another has
been rigorous monitoring, which has helped reduce the number of children
missed by health workers during National Immunization Days to less than
1 percent, according to WHO.
Rotary International has played a major role in helping to stop the
transmission of polio in India. Rotary has been a spearheading partner
in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative since
1988, along with WHO, UNICEF, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is also a key
supporter of the initiative.
Sporting their signature yellow vests and caps, the nearly 119,000
Rotarians in India have helped administer vaccine to children, organize
free health camps and polio awareness rallies, and distribute banners,
caps, comic books, and other items.
Global support from Rotarians
"With the support of their Rotary brothers and sisters around the
world, Indian Rotarians have worked diligently month after month, year
after year, to help organize and carry out the National Immunization
Days that reach millions of children with the oral polio vaccine," says
RI President Kalyan Banerjee, of the Rotary Club of Vapi, Gujarat. "As
an Indian, I am immensely proud of what Rotary has accomplished.
However, we know this is not the end of our work. Rotary and our
partners must continue to immunize children in India and in other
countries until the goal of a polio-free world is finally achieved."
Robert S. Scott, chair of Rotary's International PolioPlus
Committee, calls India's achievement "a significant step towards a
polio-free world – an example as to what can be accomplished no matter
what problems need to be overcome. Rotarians of India are and should be
proud of the key efforts they have made at all levels, without which the
world would not be marking this milestone."
Deepak Kapur, chair of the India PolioPlus Committee, also credits
the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for its commitment to
ending polio. To date, the Indian government has spent more than US$1.2
billion on domestic polio eradication activities. "We are fortunate that
our government is our biggest advocate in this effort," Kapur says.
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