No polio cases in Uttar Pradesh for a year

It is after over five years that Uttar Pradesh — blamed for re-infecting other states and countries such as Angola and Tajikistan in the past — has not reported any type of polio virus for about a year.

The last case of type-1 polio virus was reported in UP in November 2009 and the last type-3 polio virus case was reported on April 21,2010.

This year,only one case of polio has been reported in the country — from Bengal — following which a special immunisation drive has been planned on April 24 in high-risk areas of UP,Bihar and Bengal.

Health experts across the world say the control of the wild polio virus spread in the two endemic states has pushed India close to its target of being declared polio-free.

International polio eradication partners such as Rotary International,WHO and UNICEF plan to highlight the success stories and felicitate those who contributed to this success in the past few years.

This includes appreciating the efforts of parents,social workers,religious leaders as well as government officers by holding a thanksgiving programme.

“In order to keep the attention on eradication,we have decided to felicitate all those who contributed in their own way to this big achievement,” said Ajay Saxena of Rotary International.

“This time period is very crucial,there is a need to maintain the focus on the programme so that there are no loopholes. Last time in 2005,gaps in properly implementing the immunisation in just one district had led to another outbreak,” Saxena said.