India Among Four Polio-Endemic Nations

India among four polio-endemic nations

NEW DELHI, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) — India is one of the four polio- endemic countries in the world along with Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan, says a UN report, Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) reported here Friday.

Despite the fact that polio is still endemic in India and Pakistan, the number of cases in both countries in the last quarter in 2005 fell by more than half compared with the previous year, the statement adds. This is due to more effective immunization strategies and the use of the monovalent vaccines.

“This is the first time in three years that the number of polio- endemic countries has fallen, leaving Nigeria, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan as the sole remaining countries yet to stop indigenous polio transmission,” says the report, which announces new vaccine initiatives to target remaining strains of the virus.

The report came as polio eradication efforts enter a new phase with the next-generation vaccines targeting the two surviving strains — poliovirus types 1 and 3.

In 2006, monovalent vaccines, aimed at individual virus strains, will be the primary platform for eradication in all remaining polio- affected areas, says a UN statement, according to IANS.

In addition to mass immunization with monovalent vaccines in the four endemic countries, large-scale campaigns with these vaccines will need to take place in 2006 in eight countries — including Somalia, Indonesia and Yemen — to stop recently imported polioviruses, the report adds.