Rotary International Honours Shri Azad as Champion in Worldwide Efforts to Eradicate Polio


The Union Minister of Health and Family welfare Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad was Honoured by Rotary International as Polio Champion for his untiring efforts to eradicate the disease from the country. Shri Azad was presented the award at a function here today at New Delhi where he launched the National Immunization day for polio. This immunization day will see launch of bivalent vaccine in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. The bi-valent vaccine was launched in Bihar last month to tackle the disease in focus areas. About 42 million kids will get the new drops. Overall 170 million children are likely to be immunized in this round of NID. “ We are committed to eradicate the polio menace from the country and focussed efforts will definitely bring desired results with the introduction of Bivalent vaccine in UP, Delhi and Bihar” Shri Azad said.

The Polio Champion Award is given by Rotary International since 1995 to recognize governments and world leaders who have made outstanding contributions toward the goal of eradicating polio. Other leaders who have been honoured with Rotary’s Polio Eradication Champion Award include Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, former Prime Minister John Howard of Australia; former Prime Minister Tony Blair of Great Britain; Alpha Oumar Konare, former chair of the African Union Commission; former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan; Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India; President Yar’Adua of Nigeria; former President Bill Clinton of the United States; former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan; President Mamadou Tandja of Niger; Secretary General Ban-Ki-Moon.

There are three strains of wild polio virus, viz P1, P2 & P3. Type 2 wild polio virus (P2) has been eliminated in the year 1999. Efforts are being made to eradicate P1 and P3 also. As P1 is the more virulent type of the two, the current strategy is to eliminate it first while keeping P3 under control. Once P1 is eradicated, efforts to eradicate P3 will be made. Initially trivalent Oral Polio Vaccine (which caters to all the three strains of wild polio virus) was used in the campaign. Subsequently, more efficacious monovalent vaccine was introduced in the programme to handle the type 1 and type3 wild polio virus. While the monovalent vaccine has been found to be effective in containing the transmission of P1, it has affected the control of transmission of P3 getting compromised. Recently a bivalent vaccine has been developed which will control P1 and P3 simultaneously. This vaccine is being introduced in UP and Delhi from today and it was introduced in Bihar last month.

Pulse polio programme was started in the year 1995 with the objective to eradicate poliomyelitis. Prior to starting the campaign, the number of paralytic cases due to polio was in the range of approximately 50000 every year. A drive against wild polio virus by organizing pulse polio campaign has seen a drastic reduction in the number of paralytic cases due to polio and it has been limited to a few hundreds now.

33 States / UTs are now free of indigenous transmission of wild polio virus. Only UP and Bihar remain the two endemic States in the country for wild polio virus where the indigenous transmission is still continuing. A multi pronged approach is being adopted where on the one hand efforts are being made to vaccinate each and every child with Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) and on the other, efforts to ensure sanitation, hygiene and clean drinking water are being ensured.

For the year 2009, 721 cases have been reported so far. Out of these, 641 are wild poliovirus type 3 (WPV3) & 79 are wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) & one case is a mixture of both i.e. WPV1 + WPV3.


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