The top US health
official administered polio vaccination drops to children in New Delhi on
Friday as India marked one year since its last case of the crippling disease.
The
milestone is a major victory in the global effort to eradicate polio. If no
previously undisclosed cases are uncovered in the coming weeks, India will be
removed from the list of endemic countries, leaving only Pakistan, Afghanistan
and Nigeria.
US
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius marked the day by
administering the oral polio vaccine to a group of children at a maternal
health clinic in New Delhi.
India's
success in fighting polio has been credited to a partnership between the government,
the World Health Organization, UNICEF and Rotary International, whose members
have contributed more than $1 billion to the global eradication effort.
The
achievement gives a boost to those who had begun to lose hope of ever defeating
the stubborn disease.
“Marching
ahead, the goal now is to sustain this momentum,” said Deepak Kapur, head of
Rotary's polio eradication program in India.
Source: Indian Express ,Friday, Jan 13 2012.
The
country reported the last case of polio on 13 January, 2011 from the state of
West Bengal. Join the website “The End of Polio” by
posting your messages in congratulating India on one year without polio.