Victory for public health in India: polio has disappeared for 3 years from the country. This is the result of intense vaccination campaigns.
India is celebrating its third consecutive year without a polio case in January 2014. This success marks a major step forward in the management of public health in the country. For the country, it is the second disease eradicated thanks to vaccination. Massive and regular vaccination campaigns are to be welcomed.
A flash success
India has been off the polio endemic list for two years. This list, managed by the World Health Organization (WHO), now has only three countries: Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria. It was a lightning success: in 2009, 741 cases of polio were reported. Two years later, only one. In a single year, the country’s two endemic states, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, are eliminating the disease from their soil.
Latest polio case in India: an 18-month-old girl who fell ill in 2011. Today, AFP says, she can walk but remains unable to run.
The border threat
But this success should not encourage the Indians to relax their efforts. In 2012, on the occasion of the 2nd anniversary of the elimination of polio in the country, WHO reiterated that it was crucial to maintain vaccination. Until the disease is eradicated globally, the risk of a resurgence is still a threat. As proof: the recent case of Syria, which had not known a case since 1999. In 2013, a dozen patients were identified.
Health experts fear polio is emerging again in India. Because the region is still under the threat of disease. In Pakistan and Afghanistan, campaigns have been suspended. Activists attacked vaccination convoys and accused a Western plot. Consequence: an alarming explosion in the number of cases since 2011. The virus now circulates freely and its transmission is not stopped. This threat could well not stop at the Pakistani-Indian borders and cross them … However, on the strength of this success, India has set itself a new objective: to eradicate measles from its territory.
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