15 March 
Focus on India: high quality campaigns show impact

Epidemiological data suggest some important progress in key endemic areas of western Uttar Pradesh – the epicentre of the 2006 outbreak in India. According to data analysis by the National Polio Surveillance Project, transmission of type 1 poliovirus is now under control as a result of consistently high quality mOPV1 rounds. Children have been vaccinated in over 93% of the households in western Uttar Pradesh consistently over the past four immunization campaigns. As a result, ten districts – Moradabad, JP Nagar, Badaun, Bareilly, Baghpat, GB Nagar, Hathras, Farrukhabad, Mainpuri and Ferozabad – have not reported a single type 1 case since September 2006. In Moradabad and JP Nagar – which reported 13% of all cases in 2006 - no type 1 case has been reported in over four months. Wild poliovirus type 1 was responsible for the outbreak in 2006 that started in Moradabad and then swiftly spread across western UP before infecting poorly-immunized children in parts of the country that had been polio-free. Nine rounds of pulse polio were conducted in 2006 including two NIDs and a large SNID in November. 

Targeted use of mOPV1 especially in endemic and adjoining areas has contributed to an overall decline in type 1 polio cases. As compared with the third quarter of 2006, there is an 89% decline in type 1 polio cases in western UP during the fourth quarter. This is the sharpest decline ever from the third quarter to the fourth, for type 1 poliovirus.

India's Muslims communities out to beat polio 

Follow a photo essay on the increasing efforts of the Muslim community in northern India to protect their children and rid their communities of polio.