[IRYzouNv]

India is all set be off the list of polio endemic countries. With India completing a year next week without the incidence of any polio case, experts say if the progress continues and all samples reported till the middle of January turn out be negative, India will not figure in the list of endemic countries by the World Health Organisation (WHO) anymore — an indication that India has stopped indigenous polio transmission.

“India is all set to reach a major milestone next week, when it will complete a year without reporting any case of polio. The next few days are therefore crucial for India. The laboratory result of the samples will come in February and if do not report any confirmed case till then, we are off the list of endemic countries,” a senior official in the health ministry said.

Other than India, so far Pakistan, Nigeria, Afghanistan are the few countries that are still “endemic”. However, with India reporting only one case so far, it is expected to stop polio transmission this year. The number of polio cases in India saw a steep fall with once case so far in 2011, 42 cases in 2010 and 741 in 2009. The independent monitoring board of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, in its recent report, was of the view that among the four polio endemic countries, “India was making great progress and appeared on track to stop polio transmission this year.” It was constituted at the request of World Health Assembly to monitor and guide the progress of the Global Eradication Initiatives 2010-12 plan.

-dc chn