CELEBRATE WITH INDIA - 3 YEARS POLIO-FREE

India marks three years without a case of wild polio on 13 January 2014, a landmark achievement for global public health and the worldwide effort to eradicate polio.

·         The three-year milestone carries official significance: the Regional Certification Committee (RCC) is expected to convene in March and evaluate data from the entire Southeast Asia Region in order to certify the region as polio-free. 

·         Experts once considered India the most technically difficult place to end polio.

o   As recently as 2009, India was home to nearly half the world’s polio cases.

o   High population density, migrant populations and poor sanitation presented exceptional challenges to eliminating the disease.

·         With commitment from all levels, India launched a comprehensive polio effort and built a robust health infrastructure to eliminate the disease. The effort included:

o   A surveillance network of more than 33,000 reporting sites

o   An army of 2.3 million vaccinators deployed during national immunization days

o   Strategies to reach children with vaccines, even in the country’s hardest-to-reach areas, resulting in delivery of 900 million doses of oral polio vaccine in 2011 alone

 

We have a unique window of opportunity to change history and end polio.

·         India’s success against polio is a significant achievement in public health and proves that the disease can be eliminated in even the most challenging of circumstances.

·         Its success provides confidence, inspiration, and technical guidance for stopping polio in the three remaining countries where polio has never been stopped – Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria.

·         We must capitalize on India’s achievement to end polio globally and protect the health of children everywhere for generations to come.

 

We are addressing the remaining challenges with a solid plan to achieve a lasting polio-free world by 2018. 

·         Lessons learned in India are helping to drive progress in the remaining endemic countries.

·         India’s success was due to strong political commitment at all levels, dedication of resources and numerous innovations and tools to wipe out the disease.

o   The Government of India and public-private partnerships together put in almost US$2 billion to the polio eradication campaign.

o   The government’s India Expert Advisory Group addressed challenges quickly, such as reaching high-risk children missed by polio vaccines.

o    Religious and community leaders and organizations helped build support from families for vaccination and the polio program.

·         Strategies from India’s polio program inform the new global strategic plan to secure a lasting polio-free world by 2018, which is helping drive progress in the endemics. For example, the plan calls for:

o   Implementing strategies used in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to identify, track and immunize migrant and neglected populations.

o   Increasing human resources at the sub-district level and engaging community mobilizers.

 

Ending polio is a critical step toward improving the lives of the world’s most vulnerable children.

·         India’s success with polio eradication is leading the way for other initiatives to improve child health.

o   The polio surveillance system is being used to improve routine immunization, including vaccination against measles and other life-threatening diseases affecting children under five.

o   The network of community health workers is delivering maternal and child health services, as well as other life-saving vaccines.

o   Religious councils developed to encourage polio vaccination are taking on new health and development challenges.

 

Progress in endemic countries shows that the Strategic Plan is working, but we must overcome challenges in the remaining reservoirs to ensure a polio-free world.

 

·         While India’s anniversary is a significant milestone and proof of what is possible, recent outbreaks in the Middle East (with cases in Syria) and the Horn of Africa – both linked to virus from endemic countries – are proof that as long as polio exists anywhere, it is a threat everywhere.

·         The remaining endemic countries made important gains eliminating the virus from its last reservoirs in 2013:

o   Strong progress in Afghanistan’s Southern Region

o   Nigeria’s case count decreased by more than 55%, with four Nigerian states that had polio in 2012 reporting zero cases in 2013.

o   Excluding the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and parts of KP, where access to at-risk children poses a major concern, Pakistan decreased cases by more than one-third in 2013. Lack of access to children in Pakistan’s North Waziristan remains a critical roadblock that must be overcome.

 

Kind courtesy of RI