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NEW DELHI: India has stepped up surveillance against a cross-border invisible enemy of a different kind, polio.
India, which shares a porous border with some of its neighboring countries like Nepal, has been afraid of importing the crippling wild polio virus.
India has identified 81 vaccination points right along the Indo-Nepal borders, all of which fall in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Oral polio vaccination is being conducted at these points on all children aged five years and below.
Vaccination booths have also been set up in 11 major high traffic railway stations in Bihar.
India has also set up vaccination booths at Chakdabagh (Poonch) and Kaman (Baramullah) in Jammu & Kashmir, Munabao railway station in Rajasthan's Barmer district and at Wagah border and Attari railway station in Punjab to administer polio drops to all children coming in from Pakistan.
Union health ministry's latest data shows that along the Indo-Nepal border, vaccination was administered on 1.5 million children in Bihar, and around 0.96 million in UP.
"We vaccinated nearly 2.66 million children five years and below from April, 2011, till now along the Indo-Nepal border. In booths along the Indo-Pakistan border, we have vaccinated 3,596 children from September, 2011," said a health ministry official.
A historic resolution by the World Health Organization (WHO) declared polio a global health emergency in the World Health Assembly in May.
The threat of importation has been worrying countries across the world. The WHO document on polio prepared for the WHA and sent to India's health ministry says Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan - the only three polio endemic countries have seen a significant increase in new cases in 2011 compared to 2010.
This year, Pakistan has already reported 40 cases of polio, Nigeria (90) and Afghanistan (19).
In 2011, Nigeria saw a 185% increase in cases compared to the previous year. Afghanistan and Pakistan experienced a 220% and 37% rise, respectively. Besides, Nigeria and Pakistan were the only two countries with confirmed circulation of the P3 virus strain since September, 2011.
WHO recently urged member states with poliovirus transmission to declare such transmission to be a "national public health emergency", requiring the development and full implementation of emergency action plans, to be updated every six months, until such time as poliovirus transmission has been interrupted.
It has also urged member states to maintain very high population immunity against polio viruses through routine immunization programmes and, where necessary, supplementary immunization activities.
"Maintain vigilance for poliovirus importations, and the emergence of circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses, by achieving and sustaining certification-standard surveillance for polioviruses," the board says.
Sir Liam Donaldson, chair of the Independent Monitoring Board, said, "Tackling the remaining one percent of polio is the greatest challenge yet, but it can be achieved if the funding and political commitment is there. Achieving this goal would be an immense triumph, making polio the second disease ever to be wiped from the planet. Failure would be a global health catastrophe."
Compounding the problem is the finance gap that is plaguing the polio fight.
WHO says the world is short by $1,090 million against an overall budget of $2,230 million. It says, "Already in the first quarter of 2012, an insufficiency of financing required some emergency eradication activities to be scaled back in 24 at risk countries. In line with the development of the Global Polio Emergency Action Plan 2012-13, a new more efficient strategy is being examined which would combine the eradication of the residual wild poliovirus transmission with the polio endgame strategy."
WHO had earlier said that travelers to and from Pakistan should be fully vaccinated, and travelers to the country who in the past have had three or more doses of OPV should have another one before they travel.
"Some countries require travelers from Pakistan to be fully immunized against polio before they grant an entry visa," it had added.
India, which shares a porous border with some of its neighboring countries like Nepal, has been afraid of importing the crippling wild polio virus.
India has identified 81 vaccination points right along the Indo-Nepal borders, all of which fall in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Oral polio vaccination is being conducted at these points on all children aged five years and below.
Vaccination booths have also been set up in 11 major high traffic railway stations in Bihar.
India has also set up vaccination booths at Chakdabagh (Poonch) and Kaman (Baramullah) in Jammu & Kashmir, Munabao railway station in Rajasthan's Barmer district and at Wagah border and Attari railway station in Punjab to administer polio drops to all children coming in from Pakistan.
Union health ministry's latest data shows that along the Indo-Nepal border, vaccination was administered on 1.5 million children in Bihar, and around 0.96 million in UP.
"We vaccinated nearly 2.66 million children five years and below from April, 2011, till now along the Indo-Nepal border. In booths along the Indo-Pakistan border, we have vaccinated 3,596 children from September, 2011," said a health ministry official.
A historic resolution by the World Health Organization (WHO) declared polio a global health emergency in the World Health Assembly in May.
The threat of importation has been worrying countries across the world. The WHO document on polio prepared for the WHA and sent to India's health ministry says Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan - the only three polio endemic countries have seen a significant increase in new cases in 2011 compared to 2010.
This year, Pakistan has already reported 40 cases of polio, Nigeria (90) and Afghanistan (19).
In 2011, Nigeria saw a 185% increase in cases compared to the previous year. Afghanistan and Pakistan experienced a 220% and 37% rise, respectively. Besides, Nigeria and Pakistan were the only two countries with confirmed circulation of the P3 virus strain since September, 2011.
WHO recently urged member states with poliovirus transmission to declare such transmission to be a "national public health emergency", requiring the development and full implementation of emergency action plans, to be updated every six months, until such time as poliovirus transmission has been interrupted.
It has also urged member states to maintain very high population immunity against polio viruses through routine immunization programmes and, where necessary, supplementary immunization activities.
"Maintain vigilance for poliovirus importations, and the emergence of circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses, by achieving and sustaining certification-standard surveillance for polioviruses," the board says.
Sir Liam Donaldson, chair of the Independent Monitoring Board, said, "Tackling the remaining one percent of polio is the greatest challenge yet, but it can be achieved if the funding and political commitment is there. Achieving this goal would be an immense triumph, making polio the second disease ever to be wiped from the planet. Failure would be a global health catastrophe."
Compounding the problem is the finance gap that is plaguing the polio fight.
WHO says the world is short by $1,090 million against an overall budget of $2,230 million. It says, "Already in the first quarter of 2012, an insufficiency of financing required some emergency eradication activities to be scaled back in 24 at risk countries. In line with the development of the Global Polio Emergency Action Plan 2012-13, a new more efficient strategy is being examined which would combine the eradication of the residual wild poliovirus transmission with the polio endgame strategy."
WHO had earlier said that travelers to and from Pakistan should be fully vaccinated, and travelers to the country who in the past have had three or more doses of OPV should have another one before they travel.
"Some countries require travelers from Pakistan to be fully immunized against polio before they grant an entry visa," it had added.
