ERADICATION OF POLIO IN INDIA

As per the global polio update report of WHO, 23 countries had reported polio cases in 2009 and 15 countries have reported polio cases in 2010. However, India is one of the four endemic countries for wild poliovirus.   State-wise details of polio cases for the years 2009 and 2010 areAnnexed.

Most of India is polio free and one of the three types of polioviruses i.e. p1, p2, and p3 – type 2 polio – has already been eradicated. The Government of India is adoptingmultipronged approach in identified high risk blocks of Western-Uttar Pradesh and Bihar by ensuring availability of clean water, sanitation improvement, improving routine immunization apart from conducting Supplementary Immunization Activity.

The Government is also focusing on vaccination of migrant and mobile population. Further, Bivalent oral polio vaccine (effective against p1& p3) has also been introduced during pulse polio campaigns in 2010 to eradicate the disease.

As per the recommendation of India Expert Advisory Group on Polio, India is on right path to eradication. However, it is not possible to mention a time frame for the same.

This information was given by Minister for Health and Family Welfare Shri GhulamNabi Azad   in Rajya Sabha.

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Poliomyelitis:

Poliomyelitis (polio) is a highly infectious viral disease, which mainly affects young children. The virus is transmitted through contaminated food and water, and multiplies in the intestine, from where it can invade the nervous system. Many infected people have no symptoms, but do excrete the virus in their faeces, hence transmitting infection to others.

Initial symptoms of polio include fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness in the neck, and pain in the limbs. In a small proportion of cases, the disease causes paralysis, which is often permanent. Polio can only be prevented by immunization.

Key facts

• Polio (poliomyelitis) mainly affects children under five years of age.
• One in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis (usually in the legs). Among those paralysed, 5% to 10% die when their breathing muscles become immobilized.
• Polio cases have decreased by over 99% since 1988, from an estimated 350 000 cases then, to 1997 reported cases in 2006. The reduction is the result of the global effort to eradicate the disease.
• In 2008, only four countries in the world remain polio-endemic, down from more than 125 in 1988. The remaining countries are Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan.
• Persistent pockets of polio transmission in northern India, northern Nigeria and the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan are the current focus of the polio eradication initiative.
• As long as a single child remains infected, children in all countries are at risk of contracting polio. Between 2003 and 2005, 25 previously polio-free countries were re-infected due to imports of the virus.
• In most countries, the global effort has expanded capacities to tackle other infectious diseases by building effective surveillance and immunization systems. Knowledge of the poliovirus has expanded with aggressive research carried out under the eradication effort.
• Success for the effort hinges on closing a substantial funding gap to finance next steps of the global eradication initiative.

Full text from Who