DSP: Explore-Experience-Excel : The Journey to a Polio free India

Time : 05.45 AM

Date :20^th Jan 2014

The Mumbai – Kerala Jeyanthi Janatha express train entered Raichur railway station. Its receding winter in the end January and tea vendors were making their hay, before the sun shines by selling cups of chai. The train stopped in the station and the entire platform bubbled with activities. Kannada, Telugu, English and Urdu Newspapers were on sale, instant breakfast, tea, coffee, water bottle counters cropped up from no-where. In this midst of chaos, I found Dr.Shreejith Nair, Community Medicine Post Graduate from our medical college assisted by an intern probed the crowd, approached the kids and examined the nail bed fingers for the indelible mark. If there are no marks, they took the child to the vaccination booth in the platform and administered the polio vaccine drops.

The Sunday 19^th Jan 2014 was the pulse polio vaccination day and it was the next day, I seen these guys administering vaccines. I went to the vaccination booth, greeted Dr.Nair and enquired about the vaccination drive. He happily showed the WHO documentation chart and during the entire night 353 kids were administered with polio vaccines. The tireless spirit and unwavering dedication were found in them to scan the crowd for kids and administering the vaccines.

Tireless Intern

The previous day all media reported that, India has been declared Polio-free by WHO and all health care professionals were having the toast of success. But for me, I admired people like Dr.Nair and several thousand health care workers toil every minute in the odd hours in odd places. Incidentally, I happened to read the book : Reimagining India edited by McKinsey & Company. Bill gates wrote an article titled “What I Learned in the war on Polio”. I was impressed by the profound lines about India and Polio by Bill Gates.

Dr.Arjun, Dept of Pediatrics administering OPV in urban health centre

India’s accomplishment in eradicating polio is the most impressive public health success. Many health experts predicted Polio free India will be a mere dream in India, as Indian rural communities are dispersed across a vast and often inaccessible terrains. Its 1.2 billion citizens are highly mobile and 27 million new Indians are born every year. But India surprised them all. Three years on and no polio cases are recorded. Before the launch of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, polio crippled an estimated 200,000 children in India each year. India achieved a major milestone in 2014. By passing two full year without recording any cases, India is no longer considered a polio-endemic country.

Finding the child in a remote hamlet in Assam by christian missionary workers

The journey from 200,000 to zero has been long, hard and arduous. Vaccinating all the children and designing the massive campaign was arduous. It has included billions of dollars of investment and the delivery of billions of doses of vaccine.

The successful polio drive campaign has three elements.
Clear goal,
Comprehensive plan and
Precise measurements

But the heart of plan was simple and inspiring mission: FIND THE CHILDREN. Indians like Dr.Nair responded to this with an army of more than two million vaccinators canvassed every village, hamlet, slum, valleys, hills stations, mountains, difficult terrains, islands, sea shores, bus stands, railway stations, airports, churches, mosques, temples, fairs, congregations, exhibitions, tribal and migrant settlements.

The progress is a credit to the tireless work of millions of frontline workers – vaccinators, public health experts, medical and allied health students, NSS volunteers, social mobilizers, community workers, health workers, religious leaders, influencers and parents – in often difficult circumstances and environments

Even Taj could not be admired by this polio crippled kid.

The progress is also a credit to the raft of innovations that have been introduced in India to tackle polio– many of which are now followed in other countries, and which are covered in this article.

However, there is no room for complacency; India must remain vigilant to protect children against polio until global eradication is achieved. Sensitive surveillance for poliovirus and high-quality immunization activities must be maintained. Every state in India must be prepared to promptly detect and respond to any wild poliovirus.

Dr.Chetty, Prof, Dept of Pediatrics in the immunization drive

In 1988, the World Health Assembly voted to launch the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). At that time, wild poliovirus was endemic in 125 countries, paralyzing more than 1000 children every day. Today, indigenous polio has been eliminated from all but three countries – Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan. The GPEI, spearheaded by national governments, WHO, Rotary International, CDC and UNICEF, is the largest public health initiative the world has known. Since 1988, some two billion children have been immunized against polio thanks to the cooperation of more than 200 countries and 20 million volunteers, backed by an investment of US$ 3 billion.