India marks a year since last polio case

(January 13, 2013) India on Friday marked one year since its last case of polio, a major victory in the global effort to eradicate the crippling disease. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius marked the occasion by administering the oral polio vaccine to a group of children at a maternal health clinic in New Delhi. If no previously undisclosed cases are uncovered in the coming weeks, India will be removed from the list of endemic countries, leaving only Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria. India's success in fighting polio has been credited to a partnership between the government, the United Nations’ World Health Organization, the UN’s children fund, UNICEF and Rotary International, whose members have contributed more than $1 billion to the global eradication effort. The achievement gives a boost to those who had begun to lose hope of ever defeating the stubborn disease. “Marching ahead, the goal now is to sustain this momentum,” said Deepak Kapur, head of Rotary's polio eradication program in India. Polio, that until the 1950s also crippled thousands every year in rich nations, attacks the nervous system and can cause irreversible paralysis within hours of infection. It often spreads in areas with poor sanitation - a factor that helped it keep a grip on India for many decades – and children under five are the most vulnerable. But it can be stopped with comprehensive, population-wide vaccination.