Dear Friends: India is on track to be declared officially free of polio by the World Health Organisation.
This article by Dean Nelson, New Delhi appeared in the Independent today(21 02 2012). I posted this informatin to Assamnet before also -bhuban . India's extraordinary eradication of polio to become official India is on tack to be declared officially free of polio by the World Health Organisation. Vials of Polio vaccine Photo: ALAMY By Dean Nelson, New Delhi There has not been a single recorded new case of the disease since January last year, and if that remains the case for the rest of the year the disease will be officially eradicated. It is an extraordinary achievement for a country where as recently as 1995 there were 32,000 polio cases and young victims can still be seen with misshapen limbs begging at traffic lights throughout the main cities. But officials believe this will soon be a symbol of India's past as rising wealth is reflected in better basic healthcare. The campaign to eradicate polio in India was launched by its government in 1999 and has been supported by international health charities and groups like Rotary in whose volunteers, including many from Britain, have helped distribute the vaccines. To achieve "polio-free" status by January next year officials and volunteers are staging "National Immunisation Days" around the country to immunize more than 170 million children under five - around 15 per cent of India's populationBill Gates checks up on polio eradication in India "It was a gigantic task, where we had to reach out to millions and millions of children in last 10 years," said Dr RN Srivastava, of the Expert Advisory Group for Polio Eradication in India. There had been resistance to immunizations campaigns in some parts of the country, he said, but "tremendous public support" had won through. It was now on course to eradicate the disease, alongside Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, but India could not afford to be complacent. "We have to be on alert and not let our guard down," he said. _______________________________________________ assam mailing list [email protected] http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
