The World Health Organisation (WHO) has removed India from the list of polio-endemic countries, suggesting that the wild polio virus had been totally eliminated from the environment. The disease paralysed thousands of children every year for several decades.
This announcement was made by Health and Family Planning Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad here at the Polio Summit 2012 in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, amidst a thunderous applause. The feat came after India successfully completed an entire year without an incidence of polio.
Mr. Azad said he received a letter from the United Nations body stating that the “WHO has taken India's name off the list of polio endemic countries in view of the remarkable progress that we have made during the past one year.”
However, India will have to remain polio free for two more years before it is declared polio-free by the WHO.
There were only four countries in the WHO endemic list, including Pakistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan. India reported its last polio case on January 13, 2011 in West Bengal. In 2009, it reported 741 polio cases, more than anywhere else in the world. In 2010 only 42 cases were reported against 1.5 lakh in 1985.
“We are greatly encouraged by the splendid progress that we have made during the last one year. We are aware that we cannot drop our guard,” Mr Azad said while drawing attention to the persistent risks of indigenous transmission and importations from other endemic countries.
“We have, therefore, put in place an Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan across the country. Under this plan, there is going to be zero tolerance for any new polio case and such a case will be declared as a public health emergency,” the Minister said.
Rapid response teams have already been formed in all States to respond to any polio case. In addition, we have alerted all the States bordering the neighbouring countries to strengthen surveillance for early detection of any imported polio virus. Special booths have been established on the Wagah border and the Attari train station in Punjab, and the Munabao train station in Rajasthan to ensure that all children under the age of 5 coming from across the border are given polio drops.
Reaffirming India's commitment to achieving full immunisation, Dr. Singh said the real credit should go to to the 23 lakh volunteers who repeatedly vaccinated children even in the most remote areas often in very bad weather conditions. “We must ensure every child, rich or poor, whether living in Ladakh or in Delhi, has equal access to the best immunisation.”
Dr. Singh also emphasised the need for providing nutritious food, safe drinking water, proper sanitation and education, in addition to universal access to safe vaccines.
Recounting how India reached the first step for becoming a polio-free country, Mr. Azad said 27 per cent of the global expenditure on polio eradication came from the country's domestic resources. More than 99 per cent coverage of children in the two remaining endemic States of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh was unprecedented, not witnessed anywhere else in the world on such a large scale.
WHO Assistant Director-General (Polio) Bruce Aylward delivered WHO Director-General Margaret Chan's letter to India, which states: “WHO will remove India from the list of endemic countries with polio virus.”
Mr. Aylward said: “It is an incredible achievement” which has come about due to the perseverance of Indian government and its people. “India's success has inspired the world.”
Keywords: World Health Organisation, polio-endemic country
As Mr. Prime Minister as rightly said all of the credit should go to the
23lakh volunteers who made this achievement possible. But we should keep
in mind that India is not yet Polio free country to achieve this feet,
we have to keep the momentum going and ensure that for next two years
there are no cases reported so become at par with the rest of the world.
I sincerely wish the remaining three countries in the Polio endemic list
i.e. Nigeria, Paksitan and Afghanistan to achieve Polio free status too
as early as possible.
I sincerely thank all the participants, request and pray to keep up the good work to save our children form this dangerous virus.
Last week we attended a training class for would-be parents on baby basics. The
presenter mentioned that oral vaccines for polio in India were stronger than the polio
vaccines given to the babies in the USA. He also mentioned that USA was polio free
for more than a decade now. Glad that we have crossed the milestone now.
congratulation India,this is one of the greatest milestone of India of this decade.Now its time for tuberculosis..............,nd million thanks to the voulanteers of the pulse polio program,bachhan ji and sachin tendulkar........
Great news I have been to 2 polio immunization days in India working with Rotary. What a great job Rotarians around the world have done - both with money and labour to work to elliminate polio,
the credit must go to all NGOs who made it success, while govt failed to even reach-out the needy through its gov. machinery. flopshow by govt till 1994 (BIMARU states particularly). this mission should continue un-abated for next TEN YEARS at least. environmental hyguine & sanitation is still at poorest levels in india. there is alot that gov should hand over controls to NGOs and govt wash off their dirty hands.
We were present in Vigyan Bhaban,New Delhi,to-day(25-02-12),when the health minister & the Prime Minister declared that India had achieved a significant land mark in eradicating the scrouge of polio.However,there is a window period of 2 years,after which our country can be declared as totally free from polio.Let us all get together to achieve this goal. The experience gained from the eradication of polio in the country should be used in other public health related programmes also.
A great news.. hats off to the great efforts put by everyone for achieving this goal. We need such commitments in tackling all the issues we are facing now.
Hats off to the 23 lakh volunteers! A polio free country sounds fabulous and would
surely not have been possible without team effort as the prime minister rightly pointed out. We are proud of you India!
23 lakh volunteers is an awesome army. Hats off to all our combatants. We need to remain vigilant.
thanks to the volunteers and concerned authorities for making INDIA
polio free nation.
This is one example, where we can achieve something, if we have a good
leadership. Polio campaigning is being extensively carried out all
around the country for the past 2 decades. And every one right from to
the head to the volunteer has worked with sincere efforts, making our
country close to eradication of polio. I am really happy about this.
But this achievement should set an example to eradicate worse problems
in our country like corruption, poverty, unemployment, illiteracy.
<i>It is clear that, there are at least a 2.3 million golden hearts in
our country, who are wishing good of every one. I hope this number
increases and also bring a great progress in our country.</i>
this is one of the greatest achievement of India till date.
Feeling proud. Nation thanks the volunteers. Surakshit Bachche Sukhi Bharat.
Many many congratulation to all Indian. As an Indian i feel proud for
achieving this milestone.I would like to extend my appreciation to all
the volunteers who work hard to make this come true.As PM rightly said
team work definitely pay.Polio Eradication is one milestone that we
have achieved so far but overall human development depends upon
various factor we have number of issues in place like female
foeticide,poor education, malnutrition etc.So proper strategy should
form to encounter all these roadblock to development.lets pledge we
will make India a nation where our new generation can live with proud
& sense of security.
Commendable job by the Indian health authorities considering the logistic challenges involved.
Wonderful news. As the Prime Minister has aptly summed up the matter it is the success of Team Work. Still the contribution made by our dedicated volunteers needs special mention. To review the success story, the government had given some creative advertisements in both print and electronic media perhaps the first visible outcome of a government spending on advertisement, this time not to accolade government reforms. In short the bureaucracy has come down to the door step of the people proving that it can act precisely to the core issue if the vision is there .As the intension was clean straight and with farsightedness in no time people’s participation simply followed suit. Today it is acknowledged by the WHO.As usual a certification or conferring of citation do add more responsibility; our bordering nations both Bangladesh and Pakistan are still in the grip of polio. Government has already set up polio booths in Bangla border. The question is ,is that sufficient can India now sit back and rest .No India need to exert the same zeal and energy perhaps little more to see that the bordering nations also fall in line to achieve this noble cause if required by extending a financial assistance to these nations. After all it goes for the benefits of the new born to the children below the age of five for a better tomorrow in which the human aspect must rise above all boundaries. After all India is also going to gain from it. Can India get any other good chance to show its gesture of good will to our neighbors?
As an Indian,I take pride in this achievement...Kudos to all the volunteers for their strenuous efforts...Have to keep this for another couple of years...Hope India 'll be a polio free nation..
Great news to hear!! Great achievement too!!
This is a remarkable mile stone achieved by India. But now India should
be more cautious and vigil in keeping the disease away from country by
continuing the Pulse Polio program as well keeping an eye on the people
coming from neighboring countries.
Kudos to the government of India and all the volunteers who contributed to
accomplish this milestone. But we have to work hard to keep this status.
While we have made unprecedented progress in polio eradication, we still lag in overall human development, marks of which are seen as malnutrition in children, low quality of education (though enrolment has incresed). Health and education being indispensable for development, India has a lot to do. Polio eradication is a mini-step though highly laudable in this regard.
This is a great achievement of our country.
All the volunteers needs to be appreciated for this so that they
continue doing this hard work.And the hard work does not end here.The
next big step is to remain polio free nation for next 2 years.Then only
India will be a polio free nation!
While the achievement is commendable, it seems repetitive as the momentum after similar past achivements rapidly weakened and so let us see whether we can maintain a clean slate for the next two years! Educaltion of resisting parents with misconceptions based on religion should continue for India to be polio free permanently!
This is awesome!
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