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New Delhi: The nearly 200 polio cases reported in the first four months of 2008 notwithstanding, the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday complimented India for doing much better than other endemic countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.
Bruce Aylward, Director, Global Polio Eradication Initiative at the WHO, said India had made immense progress and "appears closest" to achieving the polio eradication goal.
Aylward was in India to assess the progress made by India in the field.
"Just 12 months after the WHO Director General Margaret Chan launched the intensified polio eradication effort, India is closest of the last four polio endemic countries on eradication of Type 1 (P1), with the lowest number of cases in the key reservoir areas," Aylward said during talks with health ministry officials here.
He reaffirmed that eradicating the deadly P1 virus would require compliance with immediate and large-scale vaccination campaigns covering over two million children each time.
"In 2008, there are only 12 cases of P1 in all of Asia - four each in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, in contrast to over 100 cases in Nigeria," Aylward said.
"Among Asian countries, India is clearly the closest to stopping P1 as key areas of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have made tremendous progress in reducing P1 cases," he said.
Most virulent form
P1 is the most virulent form of polio virus that spreads faster and handicaps the affected person more frequently than the P3 virus. The only other type of polio, Type 2 (P2), was eradicated in 1999.
No P1 case was reported in Uttar Pradesh this year and only one in Bihar. Delhi, Orissa and West Bengal reported one P1 case each. Of the 203 cases reported this year (till April 25), Bihar reported 157 cases and Uttar Pradesh 40.
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