(Image source from: Indian becomes polio-free})
A big feat for India! The World Health Organization, on Thursday, announced India as a polio-free nation, making the country's almost two-decade-long, multi-billion-dollar effort one of the greatest public health conquests in the recent times.
The last case of polio was reported in the country almost three years ago in January 2011 in West Bengal. Post that, there has bee no other cases of polio has emerged yet.
Today, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria are the only countries left in the world where polio prevails. The polio virus remains endemic in these countries, mostly due to violent conflicts, poor health systems and no sanitation.
"This ceremony... marks one of the biggest public health achievements," Poonam Khetrapal Singh, the WHO's Southeast Asia director, told diplomats and health officials at the event.
"It is a day that all countries fought hard for, and a day when all stakeholders come together to celebrate the victory of mankind over a dreaded disease that, for centuries, has killed and disabled legions."
Until the 1950s, polio was a fatal threat to most of the countries in the world. The polio virus raided the nervous system and caused irreversible paralysis within hours of infection, causing high fever and crippling the body. The highly contagious virus is endemic in areas with poor sanitation and children under five are the most vulnerable victims of it.
In 1988, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative - initiated by various governments and supported by organizations like WHO, Rotary International and the U.N. Children's Fund - was launched to provide comprehensive, nationwide vaccination to all the endemic nations.
More than 350,000 children across 125 countries were crippled or killed by polio every year. The numbers dropped to 99.9 percent over the years and in 2013, just 406 cases of polio were reported world over.
India, where more than 50,000 children were afflicted with polio every year, was considered one of the difficult zones to eradicate polio. Then started India's mammoth drive to immunize children by giving them polio drops. The volunteers mainly targeted migrant families at bus stations, on trains, roads, festivals. Some trekked miles to different villages to give polio drops. Over 170 million children are now immunized every year, thanks to the house-to-house visits drive which costed the government $3 billion since 1995. The end result, India is polio free today. That is truly a laudworthy feat.
AW: Suchorita Choudhury
