NEW DELHI: The World Health Organization (WHO) has taken India off its list of polio-endemic countries, federal Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said Saturday. India last reported a polio case on January 13, 2011 from West Bengal state. The country had reported 42 polio cases in 2010 and 741 in 2009 down from 50,000 cases in 1995. “WHO has taken India's name off the list of polio-endemic countries in view of the remarkable progress that we have made during the past one year,” Azad said at a two-day polio summit in the Indian capital. “We have won the battle but the war is not yet over. Let us continue our efforts with the same vigour, so that India can be declared polio free in the year 2014,” Azad said. Azad also said there would be zero tolerance for any new polio cases, with an emergency preparedness and response plan already in place. States bordering neighbouring countries where the virus was active had been alerted to strengthen surveillance for early detection of any imported virus, Azad said. The coordinated efforts of the federal and state governments and organizations like WHO, UNICEF and Rotary International, along with the efforts of 2.3 million health workers and volunteers, had helped rid India of polio, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said at the summit. “This gives us hope that we can finally eradicate polio not only from India but from the face of the entire mother earth. The success of our effort shows that teamwork plays,” Singh said. Health ministers from Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal were among those attending the two-day summit. Author: Sunrita Sen for dpa ShortURL: http://goo.gl/DL2xp Tags: India, Polio, WHO Section: Health, Latest News, South Asia
