India’s polio victory fuels endgame vaccine talks

When the clocks struck midnight in New Delhi on 12 January, India marked the first year in history it has recorded no new cases of polio. This is a huge milestone for a country many experts thought would be the last place on earth to get rid of the crippling virus. It is also an exciting step forward for global health workers battling to make polio only the second human infectious disease after smallpox to be eradicated. “If all the data comes in clear over the next few weeks, then India, for the first time, will show up as an unshaded area on WHO polio maps,” said Sona Bari of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Global Polio Eradication Initiative. “This is a great start to the year for India.” While India celebrates, global health authorities are debating how to reduce the risk that vaccines containing live viruses may reintroduce the disease to places...