AsiaCalling

Download India has been polio-free for 9 months this year.

This is the longest period since the Global Polio Eradication initiative was launched in 1988.

In India and four other countries, polio is still endemic.

But given recent progress, officials say India is close to eradicating polio altogether.

Bismillah Geelani has the story.

At a primary health center in the northern state of Haryana, a group of paramedics and health activists administer oral polio vaccine drops to children.  

Most children are reluctant to take the drops and cry.

But parents like Zakia Begum make sure their children are vaccinated even if it requires using force.

“If they get polio they will be crippled for the rest of their life. It is such a dangerous disease. If we don’t make them take this free medicine now we won’t be able to cure them later even if we spend lots of money.”  

Children who receive the immunization drops are marked with permanent ink on their left little finger.

The health workers then go door-to-door looking for those who don’t have the mark and immunize them on the spot.

Outside the vaccination center, 32-year-old Ramzan Khan is sitting on his wheelchair urging passersby to participate in the immunization drive.

He sings “Look at me, look what my parents have done to me, don’t destroy the future of your children, be good parents and take them for the polio vaccine.”

Ramzan says he knows how difficult it is to live with polio.

“My wife is also handicapped but by the grace of God our son is all right. I bring him to take the anti-polio drugs every year and encourage others to do so. I don’t want anyone to suffer the hardships that we have been through.”

And the initiatives, both individual and collective, have paid off.

The Indian government says it is now close to wiping out polio for good.

Gulam Nabi Azad is India’s Health Minister.

“The total number of cases which was 742 in 2009 dropped to 41 in 2010 and this year the number has come down to just one.”

Highly infectious, polio tends to strike children under 5 years old, and leads to irreversible paralysis.

A case of polio in West Bengal this January is the only reported incident this year.

Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, traditional polio hotspots, have had no cases at all.

Dr. Panna Chowdhary is a member of the Association of Indian Pediatrics. He says the intensive vaccination drive over the past few years has been highly effective.

“We have better tools now, especially the use of oral polio vaccines which specifically targets the type 1 Polio and another Polio vaccine which we call bivalent which addresses both type 1 and type 3 Polio. These two vaccines are now being used together and that has shown the result."

Every year, India holds two national immunization days. On each day, millions of children are given polio drops.

Many were initially opposed to the vaccination drive, especially India’s Muslim population.  

Health activist Faizan Ahmad says it was almost impossible to convince them.

“Polio vaccine is seen as a kind of Western conspiracy to make the children impotent. Somehow this rumor grew and lots of family’s even hit their male children for taking the vaccine."

But the situation has changed dramatically and many mosques now announce the immunization drives over their loudspeakers.

Deepak Kapur, Chairman of the Rotary India Polio Plus Committee, says the campaign needs a further push to eradicate polio entirely.

“We will have to make our commitment stronger at all levels be it political, bureaucratic or religious because this is the best chance ever for India to get rid of polio.”

According to the World Health Organization a country is only declared polio-free if it has no cases for three consecutive years.

India’s polio eradication deadline has already been extended three times.

But this time health officials are convinced that India will achieve the goal and has formed several Rapid Response Teams to deal with any new cases.

Anuradha Gupta is joint secretary of the Polio Program at Health Ministry.

“The intention is that any polio case is treated as a public health emergency and if at all there is a case reported then there is a special round and they are given polio drops so that there is no further transmission.”

But Rod Curtis from UNICEF India, says the country is not in the all clear yet.

“There’s no room for complacency. At the moment India is surrounded by countries that still have polio virus transmission. Afghanistan and Pakistan have not stopped polio virus transmission, they currently have outbreaks of polio virus, virus from Pakistan just re-infected China.”

Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria are the three other countries – besides India – where the polio still exists.

But the World Health Organization says India holds the key to the global eradication of the virus.

Dr. Hamid Jafri heads the organization’s National Polio Surveillance Project in India.

“Given the size and the scope of the challenge and the epidemiologic challenges and the innovations that the program here in India has done, if India succeeds in eradication the whole world succeeds."