In the fight against polio, India has shown significant progress with not a single case of the virulent P1 virus being reported in the last eleven months from the core endemic area of western UP.“This is the biggest thing to happen in the programme. No one would have believed India would be here in October,” said Bruce Aylward, Director of WHO’s Global Polio Eradication Initiative.Moradabad, JP Nagar, Rampur, Meerut, Badaun, Muzaffarnagar — these make the core endemic area — have not reported “any P1 case” for eleven months which, in itself, is a new record. Experts say that if this continues, the virus may soon be eradicated from the epicentre.“This is news which calls for celebrations. This has been the most endemic area not only in India but in the world due to various risk factors. Given the conditions, which also reduce efficacy of the vaccine, this is a great achievement,” said Dr Hamid Jafari, project manager, WHO, National Polio Surveillance Project. Until last year, western UP was the virus epicentre, afflicting 676 children. Overall, India had 367 cases this year compared to 593 in the same period during 2006. Type 1 accounted for a mere 66 cases this year, as against 575 last year. Experts say that a change in strategy to focus first on the virulent Type 1 strain in the vulnerable states of UP and Bihar and accelerating polio rounds to cover as many children as possible is paying off. In fact, it was only two years ago that experts switched from the trivalent to monovalent vaccine to pin down the wild virus. “The strategy is robust and is showing results. UP is on its way to become free from P1 virus. Cases have not been reported from June to September too which is a high transmission season. It’s the combination of use of vaccine, improvement in operations and greater acceptance,” said Jafari.
