In what is being hailed as an “extraordinary achievementâ€, polio cases in India are down to 41 this year against 650 reported in 2009.
Only 19 of these cases are from the “key reservoir†areas of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Together, the two states had accounted for 600 cases last year.
Nigeria, which was the second worst-hit country last year after India, with about 400 cases, has also reported a drastic fall, with only 13 polio cases this year.
“No cases were reported in India in the past four weeks — an extraordinary achievement, given that September/October are usually the heart of the ‘high season’ for wild polio virus transmission,†says the latest report of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), released on Friday.
A WHO official said that “the lowest-ever levels of polio transmission in India†during the high-transmission season are extremely significant to global polio eradication efforts because India is considered the most technically challenging of the four polio-endemic countries. The other three are Nigeria, Pakistan and Afganistan.