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The World Health Organization announced that on March 27, 1.3 billion people in India and the entire WHO region of Southeast Asia will celebrate their five-year exemption from the polio.
The WHO said twelve years ago that India alone was responsible for nearly 70% of polio cases worldwide. He described India's success against polio as one of the most important achievements in public health.
WHO officials said India's achievements proved that the disabling disease could be eliminated, even in the most difficult circumstances, with a firm political commitment.
Globally, the number of wild poliovirus cases has decreased from approximately 350,000 per year in 1988, when the WHO eradication campaign was launched. to 33 in 2018.
Sensible point
WHO spokesman Christian Lindemeier told VOA that polio is endemic only in three countries in two of the organization's six regions: Nigeria in the African region, Pakistan and Afghanistan in the eastern Mediterranean.
"No wild polio virus has been detected in Africa since 2016, and we are cautiously optimistic that AFRO, our African region, is also on the road to certification," Lindemeier said. . "EMRO, our eastern Mediterranean region, only counts those two countries that have never stopped polio, unfortunately, Afghanistan and Pakistan."
Lindemeier said countries are considered a common reservoir of the virus. Therefore, he added, the WHO's polio eradication program focuses the bulk of its work and support. He added that adapted and innovative tactics were put in place to face the challenges of each country.
Strategies include the identification, monitoring and vaccination of migrant and hard-to-reach populations. Lindemeier said community workers would be trained to go door-to-door to find unvaccinated children and vaccinate them against polio.
The WHO said the polio virus did not respect borders. Polio would only be eradicated when every last child was protected.
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