POLIO ERADICATION IN INDIA AND THE NATIONAL POLIO SURVEILLANCE PROJECT
The goal of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative is to ensure that no child will ever again know the crippling effects of polio. Polio is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus poliovirus. It invades the nervous system and can cause total paralysis in a matter of hours. It can strike at any age, but affects mainly children under three. Polio is mainly passed through person-to-person (i.e., fecal-oral) contact, and infects persons who do not have immunity against the disease. There is no cure for polio, but the disease can be prevented by immunization with polio vaccine. Oral polio vaccine (OPV) was developed in 1961 by Dr Albert Sabin; OPV is a highly effective, safe and inexpensive vaccine, and has been used in all countries of the world to achieve polio eradication.
NEWS
It's cross-border terror of a different kind. India is on high alert against the deadly polio virus coming into the country from Pakistan and the health ministry has asked the Punjab government to mandatory vaccinate all children aged 0-5 years coming to India from Pakistan.
India raised the alarm after China confirmed that polio had re-entered its territory after a gap of 10 years. Genetic analysis showed that four infants in China's Xinjiang province were infected with polio virus imported from Pakistan.