PULSE POLIO CAMPAIGN, 1994 - A COUNTRY VERSUS A VIRUS

From being the epicentre of a dreaded disease that left children with permanent disability, India achieved the impossible task of eradicating polio through a sustained, concerted effort by the government, NGOs and members of the local communities

- BY SONALI ACHARJEE

In the 1980s, India was among the four countries where poliomyelitis, the dreaded disease that afflicts children under five and leaves them with a permanent disability, was endemic, contributing 200,000 cases per year. Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan were the other three nations where the scourge ran rampant. A sustained, multi-actor effort and a successful immunisation programme, kickstarted with the Pulse Polio vaccination campaign by the Narasimha Rao government in 1995, chased the virus out of India. The country reported its last case of poliovirus 14 years ago, on January 13, 2011, in Howrah, West Bengal. The World Health Organization declared India polio-free in 2014, after the mandated three years without a single case had lapsed.