India declared polio-free, but global risks persist

The World Health Organisation declared India free of the crippling polio virus, making the country’s almost two-decade-long, multi-billion-dollar effort one of the biggest public health achievements in recent times. India’s last case of the wild polio virus was detected in January 2011 in a two-year-old girl in the state of West Bengal. Three years without any new cases means a country can be certified as polio-free. Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria are the only countries in the world left where the virus remains endemic, largely due to violent conflicts, weak health systems and poor sanitation. “This ceremony … marks one of the biggest public health achievements,” Poonam Khetrapal Singh, the WHO’s Southeast Asia director, told diplomats and health officials at the event. “It is a day that all countries fought hard for, and a day when all stakeholders come together to celebrate the victory of mankind over a dreaded disease that, for centuries, has killed...