Pressroom

Source: Washington Post

By: Denyer, Simon

01/12/2012

India may soon be taken off the list of countries where polio remains endemic, leaving only Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria on the list. The country is set to announce a major milestone in its effort to eradicate polio: no cases have been reported in a full year. The number of polio cases in India dropped from between 50,000 and 150,000 per year until 1995 to 741 in 2009, 42 in 2010, and just one on Jan. 13, 2011. The country launched its first mass vaccination campaign in 1995, but health officials had to overcome resistance among some with a public education and advocacy campaign. Health officials also had to deal with the challenges of vaccinating children in the northern states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where parents tend to be migrant laborers. Last year, 172 million children under age five were given 900 million doses of the oral polio vaccine, with vaccination booths established at train and bus stations, railway crossings, and border posts. India’s success could be used as a model to wipe out polio in the other endemic nations.