India and polio cases

·         On May 2, 2008 WHO shared that India has reported over 200 polio cases in the last four months and complimented it for doing much better than other endemic countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.

·         Just 12 months after the WHO director general Margaret Chan launched the intensified polio eradication effort, India is closest of the last four polio endemic countries on eradication of Type 1 (P1), with the lowest number of cases in the key reservoir areas,"

·         There is no P1 case in Uttar Pradesh this year and only one in Bihar.

·         Delhi, Orissa and West Bengal have reported one P1 case each during the last four months.

·         Of the 203 cases reported this year (till April 25), Bihar reported 157 cases and Uttar Pradesh 40.

·         In 2008, there are only 12 cases of P1 in all of Asia - four each in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, in contrast to over 100 cases in Nigeria.

·         India can expect fewer polio cases in 2008 as compared with the last two years - 870 cases in 2007 and 674 cases in 2006 - with P1 nearing interruption and the P3 outbreak curtailed

·         P1 is the most virulent form of poliovirus that spreads faster and handicaps the affected person more frequently than the P3 virus. The only other type of polio, Type 2 (P2), was eradicated in 1999.

·         Bruce Aylward, is director, Global Polio Eradication Initiative