After having witnessed a year-long polio free period and being taken off the list of polio endemic countries, India is now looking at the endgame strategy to combat the deadly virus.
With an aim to decide the long-term strategy in fighting the virus, the India Expert Advisory group (IEAG) which consists of experts from both India and abroad will present its recommendation to the government on Friday.
“Now that we are off the hook of endemic countries, there is a need to re-look into the strategy and the endgame. The experts will give their recommendations on the level of surveillance that is required in the country now and also that how we should modify our activities without compromising the ongoing actions,” said a senior official in the health ministry.
In view of the remarkable progress, India was taken off the list of polio endemic countries by the World Health Organisation (WHO) last month. The announcement was an indication that India has stopped indigenous transmission. The only three countries now left on the WHO polio endemic list are Pakistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan.
However, even as the progress continues, International health experts maintain that the trend should continue for another three years for having really won the battle against the deadly virus. According to the protocol India could achieve “polio-free” status, if it does not report any polio case for the next two years. “The new two years are crucial. The two-day expert group meeting will therefore important as it will lay down the strategy for the next two years too,” added the official.
If polio is eradicated from the country it’ll be the second disease to be defeated after smallpox.
Officials say that meeting is significant as earlier it was only after IEAG’s recommendations in 2009 that India started using “bivalent” polio vaccines to combat both P1 and P3 viruses. While the IEAG has recommended that the monovalent vaccine rema-ined the key tool for interrupting wild polio viruses and be maintained as the vaccine of choice for mop-up immunisation, its had advised the government to use the bivalent vaccine to complement its use.