Pulse Polio In Trouble In India
March 5th, 2008
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Despite the most strenuous efforts,polio has become impossible to eradicate. Now in a more worrying trend, the latest outbreak in U.P is due to the P3 strain,
As a result, no fresh cases of P1 have been reported in the last one year. But the neglect of other polio viruses has led to an unprecedented outbreak of P3. Eighty-two cases of P3 have been reported since January 2008 – 69 in UP, Bihar (12) and Haryana (1) and the virus is replacing P1.
Health ministry officials agreed that P3 cases were on a sharp rise due to the singular focus on P1, but said that since the latter was more virulent it needed to be checked first.
“We had almost lost hope on P1. Hence, the focus was shifted to tackling it. Today we are close to eradicating P1 from India,” an official said.[link]
In the latest India budget, 950 crores have been allocated to polio eradication. The question which policy makers in India need to ask is this: Is it time to give up the dream of polio eradication?
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