Battle against polio
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: January 14, 2014 -
From 38,090 cases in early 1980s to zero for the last three consecutive years!!
This is indeed a great achievement not just in India's decades-old battle against polio but also in the overall global effort towards eradicating the disease capable of causing crippling disability or even death of young children within hours.
This hard-won battle against polio has also come after the successful the eradication of smallpox from the surface of India in 1980, thus, ensuring a secure environment where young children could live and grow healthy.
Polio or Poliomyelitis, as we all know, is a highly infectious viral disease, which mainly affects young children under five years of age.
The deadly virus is transmitted through contaminated food and water, and multiplies in the intestine, from where it can invade the nervous system, and can cause total paralysis in a matter of hours.
It is said that one in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis, usually in the legs, and among those paralysed, 5 to 10 percent of them die when their breathing muscles become immobilized.
Normally, infected kids show no symptoms that could be differentiated from other symptoms of normal ailments among young children like fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting or stiffness in the neck and pain in the limbs. But as they do excrete the virus in their faeces, the chances of transmitting infection to others is very high.
So, as long as a single child remains infected, children in all countries are at risk of contracting polio, which unfortunately has no cure so far despite advancement in medical science, but can be prevented through timely immunisation to be given multiple times.
After the last polio case was detected in West Bengal in 2011 when an 18-month old girl was found to have contacted the disease, no new case has been reported in India.
Accordingly, World Health Organisation (WHO), which has already removed India from the list of polio-endemic countries in 2012, is expected to formally certify the polio-free status of the country next month after testing the last samples of the disease.
In spite of an ailing healthcare system beset with numerous problems and the challenges faced ranging from high population density and birth rate to poor sanitation condition, and from inaccessible terrain to the societal attitude towards the seemingly endless polio immunisation campaign carried out, the success of India's battle against Polio has shown that if there is strong Government commitment and seamless partnership among all stakeholders, it is possible to eradicate polio.
So, this is an achievement as much for all the front-line workers - vaccinators, social mobilisers and community and health workers - who tirelessly contribute their mite towards ensuring proper implementation of the innovative strategies like the Pulse Polio Immunisation Programme under Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) adopted by the Government from time to time to get rid of polio from the country.
While there is every reason for India to rejoice over what has been described as "a monumental milestone" in completing three years without any new case of polio and this would also pave the way for polio-free certification of the entire South East Asia Region of WHO, however, India still needs to stay alert and continue its efforts to ensure all its children remain protected against polio, considering the fact the infectious polio virus is still considered endemic in neighbouring Pakistan.
Moreover, with conditions for the spread of polio virus so ideal everywhere, India should not forget how the virus returned in some countries like China, Syria and Tajikistan, etc after they were declared polio-free.
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