"Dr. Mathew Varghese, an orthopedic surgeon, runs India's last polio ward at St. Stephen's Hospital in Delhi. Five years ago, India accounted for nearly half of all new wild
poliovirus cases in the country. As of 13 January 2014, the country will
celebrate three years without a single case. It's one of the greatest
public health accomplishments of all time, and a powerful reminder of
just how important it is to continue the fight to eradicate polio
worldwide."
From the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation website, where Mr. Gates offers this commentary:
"Five years ago, India was home to nearly half of the world’s new
polio cases. At the time, if you asked any health expert, they would
have said India would be the last place on earth to end polio. India’s
population density and high birth rate (27 million new children are born
each year), combined with poor sanitation, was like a petri dish for
polio.
But the government of India, with help from the organizations that make up the Global Polio Eradication Initiative including Rotary International
launched an all-out effort to stop the disease. The country deployed 2
million vaccinators to reach children who had never before been reached
with polio vaccines or any other health services—children who live in
flooded regions or hard-to-find rural towns, or are regularly in-transit
with their families. One of the most powerful images I’ve seen during
my visits to India is that of parents proudly holding vaccination cards
showing that their children were protected from deadly diseases for the
first time.
And now that these children have been found, health
workers can supply them with much more than just polio drops. They can
provide other critical health services
like measles vaccines, clean water, and information about how to
deliver their babies safely and care for them during their first weeks
of life."
This graph from the WHO, via
The Dish:
Three cheers to India! Congratulations.
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