(Wed.07,Feb,2007):- In India, there has been a staggering increase in the number of
polio cases, which has earned the country the second position in the highest incidence
of polio, after Nigeria. This revelation was made by a government report on Intensified
Pulse Polio Immunisation Programme. It stated that India has witnessed a 909 per cent
increase in polio cases. The report, which is based on statistics collected from about
27 states and union territories in India, says that 666 polio cases were identified
last year. As per the report, there were eight states which were polio free, but reported
fresh cases in 2006. These are Assam, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir,
Maharashtra, Rajasthan and West Bengal. According to World Health Organisation - WHO,
as of April 1, 2003, 1,925 polio cases were reported from across the world. Eighty-five
per cent of these cases were in India, of which, nearly 75 per cent of them were
in Uttar Pradesh. In 2006, the Independent Expert Advisory Group on polio, had suggested
that campaigns need to be accelerated in the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, to
eradicate polio from India. However, it seems that much has not been done in this
direction ,as the situation in both the states remain more or less the same. Medical
experts say that if India wants to realize its dream of making itself a polio-free
nation, then the time has come for concerted action by all groups involved in this
mission, and officials responsible for the present state of affairs need to be penalised.