Polio Eradication in India

India has reached a major milestone in the history of polio eradication – a 12-month period without any case of polio. This date marks the unprecedented progress in India and an endorsement of the effectiveness of the polio eradication strategies and their implementation in India. Once all specimens from acute flaccid paralysis cases and sewage samples up to mid-January are tested in the laboratories and no wild poliovirus is detected, India will come off the WHO list of polio endemic countries. In 2009 India had more polio cases than any other country in the world (741). In just two short years, India has taken a giant step towards ending polio globally forever. India overcame huge challenges to stop transmission of polio, including its high birth rate, large population, hard-to-reach migrant communities and resistance to oral polio vaccine in high-risk populations, and its progress is proof-positive that polio eradication can be achieved anywhere...