At the age of just 18 months, Rukhsar Khatoon was paralyzed by polio. She was often sick with diarrhea and her parents thought a polio vaccine would not be safe for her. On 13th January, ten years ago, little Rukhsar was the last recorded case of poliovirus in India.
India’s battle against polio lasted over 66 years. The first research center to battle against polio was established in Mumbai almost eight decades ago, in 1949. The vaccine was introduced in 1979. However, India faced unique challenges in eradicating polio.
In the mid-1980s, India reported two to four hundred thousand cases annually. At the time, circa 1988, even the World Health Organization (WHO) presented a greatly underestimated number of 350,000 cases for 150 countries. Until the early 1990s, India was hyper-endemic for polio; an estimated 500 to 1000 children were paralysed every day from the disease.
The sheer size of the population, unsanitary living conditions, weakened health systems, and vaccine hesitancy almost made complete eradication a far-fetched goal. However, strong organisation, expansive campaigns, and cooperative efforts of the government, national and international health organisations, in combination with technological advancements of developing effective vaccines, resulted in achieving that goal. India reported its last polio case from district Howrah, West Bengal on 13th January, 2011. On February 24, 2012, the World Health Organisation (WHO) removed India from the list of “endemic countries with active polio virus transmission.”
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