In two more days, it will be clear whether India is off the WHO polio endemic list. Last 70 samples are now being tested by the health ministry laboratories. If all samples are negative, India will be off the list.
So far, it’s been a year India has not reported any polio case. If all goes well, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to announce India being off the polio endemic list on Friday in the polio summit being organised by the ministry of health.
Officials in the health ministry are confident as more than 95 per cent samples have already been tested negative for the deadly virus. “There is a rare chance of reporting a positive case.
A very small number of samples is left in the laboratories compared to the cases examined so far. Next two days are crucial as hopefully we will be able to get all the samples tested by then,” sources said.
If all the samples turn out to be negative, it will also be an indication that India has stopped indigenous transmission.
Other than India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Afghanistan are the countries that are still polio endemic.
Amongst these countries, India saw a steep fall in the number of polio cases- one case in 2011, 42 cases in 2010 and 741 in 2009. With India witnessing a polio-free year, its progress was lauded by all the International health agencies.
The Independent Monitoring Board of the Global Polio eradicate initiative in its recent report was of the view that among four polio endemic countries.
“India was making great progress and appeared on track to stop polio transmission this year,” it had said. Infact, the board urged India to deploy its expertise in support of other countries.
Since the launch of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988, the incidence of wild polio virus has reduced by 99 per cent. In 2006, the number of polio-endemic countries (countries that have never stopped indigenous wild polio virus transmission) was reduced to four including India.