Need cautious effort to eradicate polio: Experts

Even as India is less than a year away from being declared polio free, experts asked for cautious administration of vaccine to keep the virus in check. “India reported the last wild polio virus type 1 case in Howrah, West Bengal, on Jan 13, 2011. If the eradication effort is complacent now, polio could rebound quickly, potentially paralysing thousands of children a year,” Deepak Kapur, chairman India National Polio Plus Committee said in a meeting here. The committee is a volunteer body that is entrusted with spearheading the campaign for Rotary International in India. Sunil Bahl, deputy project manager, National Polio Surveillance Programme, said the end strategies needed to be worked out. “We have to work out the end strategies. The vaccinations have to be stopped ultimately to ensure there are no cases of vaccine related infections,” she said. Observing India’s role in guising other endemic nations in the fight against Polio, Robert Scott, chairman-International...