The recent act of Taliban blocking polio vaccination drive in Waziristan has had the health authorities in India worried. While India has not reported any polio case for over a year now, the cross border polio importation threatens India’s success over crippling polio virus.
Given the incredible success, recently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has put India off the list of polio endemic countries, leaving Pakistan, Nigeria and Afganistan in the list of endemic countries.
Though the surveillance against polio on the Line of Control (LoC) remains to be intensified with India setting up vaccination booths at Chakdabagh (Poonch), at Kaman (Baramullah) of Jammu and Kashmir, Wagah border and Attari railway station in Punjab and Munabo railway station in Rajasthan to administer polio drops to all children below five years of age, coming in from Pakistan, the threat of importation of the virus, officials say, still remain.
“The concern cannot be ignored as last year China reported a Polio outbreak after a gap of 10 years and the virus had spread from Pakistan. Last week, Pakistan reported five polio cases on a single day and all of them were of the dangerous P1 strain. The Taliban’s action to stop polio jabs will further add to the problem,” said a senior official in the health ministry. With Pakistan reporting increasing number of polio cases, even the WHO declared polio eradication in the Pakistan region as an emergency.
In fact, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria are the countries that have seen a significant increase in new cases in 2011 as compared to previous year of 2010. Most of the new polio cases in Pakistan are in the insurgency-hit northwest, making it difficult for health workers to reach. A growing number of cases that have been detected are traced back to Pakistan and Nigeria. While the numbers are low today, WHO has warned that the disease can quickly regain strength.