India on its way to eradicating polio

From Indian Express:

India is well on its way to eradicate the polio virus, according to health officials who show the sharp dip in the number of cases this year as against last year’s as an indication.

Largely because of effective surveillance of migrant population and vaccination drive, so far this year only 25 cases have been registered against last year’s 741.

Dr Ravindra Bantel, Regional Team leader of the World Health Organization-National Polio Surveillance programme for Gujarat, Goa, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, told The Indian Express that a meeting has been planned next week in New Delhi to further streamline the population of migrants and identify areas in the states along with municipal corporations so that each person is covered under the Pulse Polio immunisation rounds.

So far, two national immunisation rounds have been held and high risk pockets in the country have received three additional rounds of vaccination.

Out of the 25 cases in the country, 10 are from Uttar Pradesh, six from Bihar, five from West Bengal and one each from Maharashtra, Jharkhand and J&K. There have been seven cases of the P1 strain of the virus and 18 of the less virulent P3 strain.