A history in the making?

Rukhsar, an 18 month old girl from Howrah district, West-Bengal was the last reported case infected with Type-I polio virus. On 13th January 2012, India surpassed one year without detecting a single case of wild polio virus. In 1988 when the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI)³ was started, with the intensity of transmission experts believed that India would be the biggest hurdle owing to the sheer size and the diversity of the population and it would be the last country in the world to eradicate Polio. Despite the pessimistic prophesies of failure and almost fifty years after the successful work of Jonas Salk, India managed one entire year with no new cases of Polio. But celebrations will have to wait for another two years because for certificate of eradication two more years have to pass without a single case of Wild Polio Virus. In the seventies, World Health Organization (WHO) required one year declaring India free from small pox but in case of Polio the virus can remain dormant for a longer period of time, still the fact that no new cases of polio were from anywhere in India for one year is a matter of national pride. Read more. . .