A virus conquered

This past week, India marked three years since its last reported polio case. As the country gets ready to be declared ‘polio-free’, the author looks back at a well-deserved victory January 13, was a milestone in the medical history of India. It marked three years since the last polio case was detected in the country – that of Rukhshar Khatoon of West Bengal. The pride over this achievement will likely be doubled in the last week of March, when representatives of the South-East Asia Regional Certification Commission for Polio Eradication meet in Delhi. If the commission is convinced that there is no wild polio virus in the region and the surveillance quality is good enough to pick up any, it will certify the region as ‘polio-free’. For a country whose public health system is persistently beset by problems, this development is nothing short of extra-ordinary. While poliomyelitis has existed as long as human society,...