For a country where health care is a sordid joke on the poor, India has something positive to show on this front. Polio, going by the law of averages, is on the verge of being eradicated from India.
Only one polio case has been detected so far this year in the country, making it the longest polio-free period since eradication efforts were launched in 1995. The only case of polio reported this year (on January 13) has been from Howrah district in West Bengal compared to 39 cases in the same period of 2010. For the first time no case of polio has been reported either from Uttar Pradesh (since April 2010) or Bihar (since September 2010). No case of type 3 polio has come up for over a year either.
Incidentally, today (October 24) is World Polio Day.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare feels this is the closest it has come to eradicating polio, and has decided to treat any fresh case of polio as a “public health emergency” in order to achieve polio eradication from India at the earliest. Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Ghulam Nabi Azad, issued his customary statement. “We are close to our goal but are not taking any chances. Efforts will be further intensified in the country to stop any residual poliovirus circulation and also to prevent any polio cases following an international importation,” he said.
To mitigate the risk of polio importation from Pakistan which is experiencing a spurt in cases and has re-infected China, polio immunisation is being carried out at the Wagah border and Attari train station in Punjab since September and Munabo in Barmer district of Rajasthan since early October. All children crossing over into India by road and train are being administered polio vaccine. An alert has been sounded in the states bordering China to step up polio surveillance. Continuous polio vaccination is also being carried out at 81 transit points along the Indo-Nepal border in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar since April this year.
A number of new initiatives have been taken up this year. The ministry has put in place an emergency preparedness and response plan (EPRP). All states have been asked to prepare their EPRPs. As a part of this plan, rapid response teams have already been constituted and high-risk districts, blocks and villages identified to roll out measures to scale up routine immunisation, among other things.
A new communication campaign personalising the message for polio immunisation from ‘har bachcha har bar’ (every child every time) to ‘mera bachcha har bar’ (my child every time) has been rolled out. This campaign encourages parents to take action to protect their children against polio. These measures are in addition to the efforts already being made in the polio-endemic states of UP and Bihar. A 107 Block Plan that addresses actions to improve actions to improve polio coverage and routine immunisation in 107 high risk blocks of UP and Bihar in addition to tackling risk factors such as reducing incidence of diarrhea, improving sanitation and water quality is also being implemented.
For once, India’s efforts are being lauded. The International Monitoring Board (IMB) of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in its October report has said that India is on track to interrupt transmission in 2011.
The wake-up call came in 1985 when 2 lakh polio cases were estimated. Polio vaccine was subsequently universalised and integrated in the Universal Immunisation Programme for administration across the country. In 1995, when Pulse Polio Programme was launched, there were still an estimated 50,000 polio cases in the country. The turning point came in 2010 when only 42 polio cases were reported. Every year two National Immunisation Days (NIDs) are carried out in January and February. During each NID nearly 17.2 crore children are immunised. Nearly 23 lakh vaccinators under the direction of 155,000 supervisors visit 20 crore houses to administer oral polio vaccine to children under the age of five years.
The claims are all there. Till such time as no one is able to refute these, they will stand.
