Ghotala.in

End is nigh for polio epidemics

ONE year ago today, the 18- month-old daughter of a poor Muslim embroiderer from West Bengal was diagnosed with polio after she was struck down with a fever, a rash that covered her body and a sudden paralysis in her leg.

Though a tragedy for Rukshar Shah and her family, the diagnosis might otherwise have been unremarkable in India, which for years has been the world’s greatest exporter of the devastating disease.

But Rukshar’s polio may turn out to be the last case registered in the country.

Barring any 11th-hour detections - which cannot be ruled out, given the struggle to improve sanitation for the bulk of the 1.2 billion-strong population - India could be declared free of endemic polio in a matter of weeks.

Should independent analysis next month confirm what hundreds of participating scientists believe to be true, the achievement would mark not only one of India’s greatest public health milestones but also remove the biggest hurdle to global polio eradication.

It is a triumph of national and international co-operation, involving thousands of bureaucrats at local, state and national level, and hundreds more scientists and campaigners from the World Health Organisation, Unicef, US Centre for Disease Control, Rotary and Gates Foundation.

India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria are the last countries where polio remains endemic. If India can stay free of the disease for another three years then the entire WHO-defined Southeast Asian region could be declared polio-free, the fourth of sixth regions to be thus confirmed.

It is a rare piece of good news for India’s central government, facing the fallout from major corruption scandals, flagging economic growth and stubbornly intransigent figures on other health issues. But it has not come easily; the scope of the effort is mind-blowing.Source