India is all set be off the list of polio endemic countries. With India completing a year next week without the incidence of any polio case, experts say if the progress continues and all samples reported till the middle of January turn out be negative, India will not figure in the list of endemic countries by the World Health Organisation (WHO) anymore — an indication that India has stopped indigenous polio transmission.
“India is all set to reach a major milestone next week, when it will complete a year without reporting any case of polio. The next few days are therefore crucial for India. The laboratory result of the samples will come in February and if do not report any confirmed case till then, we are off the list of endemic countries,” a senior official in the health ministry said.
Other than India, so far Pakistan, Nigeria, Afghanistan are the few countries that are still “endemic”.
The number of polio cases in India saw a steep fall with once case so far in 2011, 42 cases in 2010 and 741 in 2009.
The independent monitoring board of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, in its recent report, was of the view that among the four polio endemic countries, “India was making great progress and appeared on track to stop polio transmission this year.”
Constituted at the request of World Health Assembly to monitor and guide the progress of the Global Eradication Initiatives 2010-12 strategic plan, the board, in its meeting, declared India to be demonstrably making “consistent progress”.
In fact, the board urged India to deploy its “expertise in support of other countries”.
However, remarking on other countries, it said that “Nigeria made strong progress in 2010, but has slipped backwards in 2011. Afghanistan continues to make slow but steady progress. Pakistan’s programme is failing.”
“Just two years ago, some would have found it inconceivable that India could get this close to eradicating polio. The sanitary conditions amongst the densely packed populations of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar presented a towering challenge to the effectiveness of any vaccination campaign. India has more individuals migrating at any one time than some countries have as their entire populations. But these challenges have been understood, and seemingly overcome. Further cases may arise, but the country seems ready to deal with them. India stands a good chance of interrupting polio transmission by the end of 2011,” it had said.