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This editorial is too technical. however i am putting some information collected from other polio related articles in Hindu
- Poliomyelitis (polio) is a highly infectious viral disease which mainly affects young children.
- transmitted through contaminated food and water, and multiplies in the intestine, from where it can invade the nervous system
- Acute Flaccid Paralysis is a disabling condition where there is absence of muscle tone in one or both limbs, and tendon reflexes
- oral polio vaccine prevents the transmission of infection effectively.
- If all tests for the wild polio virus in India — including laboratory analysis of acute flaccid paralysis cases with onset up to mid-January and environmental sewage sampling — return negative, India will officially be deemed to have stopped the transmission of the indigenous wild polio virus.
- The next step would be to look at a polio-free South East Asian Region in 2014
- Currently Pakistan , Afhganistan, India, Nigeria are nations considered enedemic with polio virus
- challenges faced by India in fighting polio
- a huge population
- the logistics of covering a vast geographical area,
- poor sanitation and infrastructure,
- resistance among some groups of people to taking the vaccine,
- children of migrant communities
Progress
- Expanded Immunisation Programme in the late 1970s
- 1985, Universal Immunisation Programme launched
- National Pulse Polio Initiative (PPI) in 1995-96,
- Targeted coverage of every child under five in the country with the Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) to be given on two National Immunisation Days, one each in December and January
- PPI set for the nation a new target — eradication of polio by 2005.
- involved millions of frontline workers from the private health sector, members of Rotary International, volunteers, anganwadi workers, besides the massive public health workforce
- created systems –
- i. cold chains for storage and transportation of the vaccines,
- ii. follow up and mop up campaigns to track children left out
- In each PPI, 24 lakh vaccinators visit over 20 crore households to ensure that nearly 17.2 crore children, less than five years, are immunised with the OPV
- Pockets of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar were still endemic
- government targeted 107 'high risk' blocks in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, and identified the challenges, which included remote locations, refusal of vaccine in some areas, and migrating populations.
- 'Influencers', including religious leaders, were enlisted and tracked for each high risk area, and this helped polio teams reach more families.
- UP and Bihar have not reported any case of polio since April 2010, and September 2010, respectively.
- there is no room for complacency, with the nation having to maintain its zero-cases record for the next three years to be able to totally 'eradicate' poliomyelitis.
- greatest concern is the possibility of infections carried across borders by migrating populations
- Pakistan and Afghanistan both saw alarming increases in polio cases, and poliovirus from Pakistan re-infected China (which had been polio-free since 1999)
- In Africa, active polio transmission continues in Nigeria, Chad and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with outbreaks in West and Central Africa in the past 12 months
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