‘Extraordinary achievement’: Polio numbers hit record low

Nigeria,which was the second worst-hit country last year after India,with about 400 cases,has also reported a drastic fall,with only 13 polio cases this year.

“No cases were reported in India in the past four weeks — an extraordinary achievement,given that September/October are usually the heart of the ‘high season’ for wild polio virus transmission,” says the latest report of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI),released on Friday.

A WHO official said that “the lowest-ever levels of polio transmission in India” during the high-transmission season are extremely significant to global polio eradication efforts because India is considered the most technically challenging of the four polio-endemic countries. The other three are Nigeria,Pakistan and Afganistan.

The GPEI is a public-private partnership of governments of polio-affected countries,World Health Organisation,Rotary International,US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,and UNICEF.

After the improvement shown by India,Nigeria and Afghanistan,Pakistan has now emerged as a priority for international agecies. The country reported 134 polio cases this year,up from 84 last year. Even war-torn Afghanistan has reported a fall from 38 cases in 2009 to 23 this year.

Tajikistan has also become a new source for worry. The disease has resurfaced in the Central Asian country 12 years after it was declared polio-free in 1997. It has reported 458 cases of Type 1 polio this year,which is 60 per cent of the Type 1 cases wordwide. The genetic sequencing of the virus in Tajikistan has shown that it is closely related to the virus circulating in UP.

Encouraged by the amazing drop in numbers,Ajay Saxena of Rotary International,who has been working in Uttar Pradesh for the past one decade for polio eradication,said: “This is a major achievement for all of us.” According to him,the new bivalent polio vaccine could be behind the drop.