By Himanshu Guru: India has almost completely eradicated Polio excluding a single case found on last 13 January 2011. Tireless efforts and the continuing support of the community have helped India reach the verge of polio eradication.

Once upon a time India used to be an epicenter of polio. But over the past few years, it has made great efforts toward eradicating the disease. As a result it could reduce the number of polio victims to a considerable point of 741 cases in 2009, which again remarkably dropped to 42 cases in 2010 and only a single case for a two-year-old girl in Howrah, in West Bengal in 2011.

This achievement is a milestone when compared to estimated polio cases of 150,000 in 1985 in the country.

Admiring India’s achievement in a statement on "The Gates Notes," Bill Gates writes, "India's story is proof that major health problems can be solved in the toughest places in the world.”

World Health Organization Director General Margaret Chan has also called for the global adaptation of the Indian lessons to finish polio everywhere.

If India successfully achieves a complete state of no-polio from 1st January 12 to 31st December 12, it will be the first country to be taken off the endemic list since Niger and Egypt in 2006.

However, although it achieves non-endemic status, still we need to be alert as there are threats of re-importation from neighboring countries.

Polio is a highly infectious disease that can lead to irreversible paralysis which is caused by a virus transmitted primarily through contaminated food and water.

In 1988, when the World Health Assembly formally adopted polio eradication as a global goal, World Health Organization data recorded 23,800 cases of polio in India. However the ‘Pulse Polio’ immunization campaign was established to completely eradicate Polio from the country by vaccinating all children under the age of five years by the govt. of India in 1995-96.

Under the campaign, Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) was administered to children in the age group of 0 to 5 in the numerous polio booths across the country. As a result, out of the three strains of wild polio virus, P1, P2 and P3, P2 was eliminated in 1999.

Subsequently, effective monovalent OPVs were introduced in 2005 and in 2010, the bivalent polio vaccine (bOPV) was introduced, helping curtail both P1 and P3.

Oral polio vaccine was also a big reason of success in this eradication as compared to the injection. The oral polio vaccine was created in 1961 by Dr Albert Sabin using a live attenuated strain of virus. It has been this vaccine, given in drops, which has been the main tool of polio eradication.

The success in India has been achieved through a partnership between the Indian government, with support from the World Health Organization (WHO), Rotary, and UNICEF and with major contributions from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Last but not least the endeavor of great Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan too cannot be ignored, who became the brand ambassador to act for all the short promotional films (TV) to eradicate Polio.

A full three years must pass without any case before India can be certified as having eradicated polio.

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