New Delhi: The spread of Polio might have been halted in India since 2011 but the after effects of the disease still remain. One of the people fighting the ravages of this disease is Dr Matthew Varghese. This orthopaedic expert has caught the attention of Bill Gates, no less, with the work he has done with polio patients in Delhi.
The founder of Microsoft recently wrote about Dr Matthew Varghese in his blog,GatesNotes, calling him one of the five persons in the world who he thinks is a real-life hero. Dr Varghese, who runs India's only polio ward, at St Stephen's Hospital in old Delhi, wants his ward emptied of patients and so devotes all his time to the rehabilitation of men and women who have been afflicted with polio.
In the early 1990s, polio was hyper-endemic in India with 200,000 to 400,000 cases reported annually. The spread of Polio in India was halted in 2011 but thousands continue to suffer from the immobility caused by the disease.
At the peak of the polio eradication program more than 2 million vaccinators (both employees and volunteers) spread out across the country to each district and give out polio vaccines.
Concerted efforts in Polio eradication
In India, vaccination against polio started in 1978 with Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI). In 1985, the Universal Immunization Program (UIP) was launched to cover all the districts of the country and led to a significant increase in coverage, up to 95%. The number of reported cases of polio also declined from 28,757 during 1987 to 3,265 in 1995.
In 1995, the Pulse Polio immunization program with Universal Immunization Program which aimed at 100% coverage was launched.The last reported cases of wild polio in India were in West Bengal and Gujarat on 13 January 2011.
On 27 March 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared India a polio free country, since no cases of wild polio had been reported in for three years.
To be effective in controlling the disease, maintaining a high level of surveillance and performance of good mop-up operations where polio has disappeared is mandatory.
During the early days of immunization publicity was extensive and included replacing the national telecoms' authority ringtone with a vaccination day awareness message, posters, TV and cinema spots, parades, rallies, and one-to-one communication from volunteers. Vaccination booths were set up, with a house-to-house campaign for remote communities.
Bill Gates visit to India
Bill Gates made a 2010 trip to India to visit the members of the Musahartribe who live in the remote marshlands of the Kosi River in Bihar. He saw the difficulties involved in reaching the tribe and the difficulties that the vaccinators had to face.
One of the most inspiring photographs of that time was an image of polio workers wading waist deep in water to reach remote villages with the polio vaccine.
India’s experience continues to be an inspiration for the world’s final push to wipe out polio in the three countries where it endures: Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria.
Based on the latest figures, in 2017, there were just 21 identified cases of wild poliovirus in the world, down from 350,000 cases per year when the global polio eradication effort launched in 1988.
References
www.gatesnotes.com
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
https://en.wikipedia.org