India breaks free of polio in boost to global immunization drive

A child receives polio drops at a polio booth in the central Indian city of Bhopal December 21, 2008. 
CREDIT: REUTERS/RAJ PATIDAR

India on Monday marked three years since its last reported case of polio, paving the way for it to be declared free of the crippling virus and boosting efforts to wipe out the disease globally, the Organization (WHO) said.

The country's last case of the wild polio virus was detected on Jan 13, 2011, in a two-year-old girl in the state of West Bengal. Three years without any new cases means India can be declared polio-free.

Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria are the only countries in the world where the disease remains endemic.

"We give huge credit to the government... It makes us extremely proud and highly responsible for having helped the government to reach this incredible achievement," India's WHO representative, Nata Menabde, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Menabde said the WHO would officially declare India as polio-free by the end of March, when the legal process for certification was completed.

Until the 1950s, polio crippled thousands every year in rich countries. It attacks the nervous system and can cause irreversible paralysis within hours of infection.

Source: Reuters.com