From recording the second highest number of polio cases in the country in 2009, Bihar has not reported even a single case of the disease in the last one year, an official said Monday.
Sanjay Kumar, executive director of the state health society, said that no reports of P1 and P3 cases -- types of polio virus -- have been reported since September 2010.
"It is going to be a big positive development on the health front in Bihar if we get rid of polio," Kumar told IANS.
He said that if the state is able to maintain the situation for two more years, it would successfully have eradicated polio.
Since December 1995, 45 pulse polio immunisation rounds have been conducted in Bihar.
Kumar said special immunisation drives will continue. "Though the state has not reported any case of Wild Polio Virus Type III for the last one-and-a-half years and of Type I since last September, the immunisation drive will continue," he said.
In 2009, 117 polio cases were reported in Bihar while the figure was over 300 in 2008. In 2010, nine polio cases were recorded -- all before September.
Earlier this year, the state government identified 41 blocks -- among them Araria, Bhagalpur, Begusarai, East Champaran, Darbhanga, Khagaria, Madhubani, and Samastipur -- which were highly polio endemic.
Till 2009, Bihar had the second highest number of polio cases in the country after Uttar Pradesh.