India still on guard against polio
24 Oct 2014 4:28 AM IST
Despite being declared polio-free by the World Health Organization (WHO), India has not let its guard down and is screening passengers from neighbouring countries where the disease is still endemic, officials said on Wednesday.
India completed three full years without reporting any case of polio, which was celebrated as a landmark event for a south Asian country. The WHO certified India as polio free in March.
‘We, however, have to be careful that the disease does not enter the country again and have scaled up measures to prevent the virus from re-entering,’ a health ministry official said. India has in fact made it mandatory for all travellers from certain countries, including Afghanistan and Pakistan, to take the polio vaccine. All visitors from Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Syria, Kenya, Somalia, Nigeria and Pakistan are required to take the Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) six weeks before departure from their country, the official said.
Polio vaccine will also be administered to all travellers from India to these polio-affected countries. The new polio vaccination regime has come into effect from March 1. India has not reported any case of polio since a two-year-old girl got polio paralysis Jan 13, 2011, in West Bengal’s Howrah district. This is an unprecedented progress for a country which reported more than half the global polio cases until 2009, the WHO had said.
India completed three full years without reporting any case of polio, which was celebrated as a landmark event for a south Asian country. The WHO certified India as polio free in March.
‘We, however, have to be careful that the disease does not enter the country again and have scaled up measures to prevent the virus from re-entering,’ a health ministry official said. India has in fact made it mandatory for all travellers from certain countries, including Afghanistan and Pakistan, to take the polio vaccine. All visitors from Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Syria, Kenya, Somalia, Nigeria and Pakistan are required to take the Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) six weeks before departure from their country, the official said.
Polio vaccine will also be administered to all travellers from India to these polio-affected countries. The new polio vaccination regime has come into effect from March 1. India has not reported any case of polio since a two-year-old girl got polio paralysis Jan 13, 2011, in West Bengal’s Howrah district. This is an unprecedented progress for a country which reported more than half the global polio cases until 2009, the WHO had said.
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