There is no case of polio in India in the past two years but health officials in India has said on Friday that we have to work harder and be "very vigilant" if it wants to remain off the list of polio endemic countries..
The World Health Organisation has excluded India from the list Feb 25, 2012, after India completed one year with no case of polio.
"We can't drop our guard and have to be very vigilant. It has taken us decades to win this war," Anuradha Gupta, additional secretary and mission director in the health and family welfare ministry has been quoted as saying.
Gupta said India’s location in proximity to polio-endemic countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan makes it vulnerable to virus importation. Since 2000 in the world, 44 countries that had been polio-free have reported cases of one or more importations.
"We have vaccination campaigns at the international border and inside trains as well where every child below the age of five is give the drops at the time of entrance," she has been quoted as saying.
Deepak Kapur, Rotary India National Polio Plus Chair, one of the programme partners, said this task should be completed in 2013.
"Polio virus threat has declined within the country but the threat of polio virus import from polio-endemic countries still looms at large. Efforts must be sustained to finish the job this year or we risk losing gains made thus far," he added further.
--with inputs from IANS
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