Abstract

Since the launch of Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988, disease burden has been reduced by more than 99% globally. Lately, India has witnessed a year without a case of poliomyelitis. It no longer stands endemic and is being regarded as a model for polio eradication efforts in other low income endemic countries: Pakistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan. The near elimination of wild polio virus in India has set forth new challenges of vaccine derived polio virus and need for newer strategies in oral poliomyelitis vaccine cessation preparatory phase. Stricter surveillance measures are needed to check for importations, any spread of virus in migratory populations and rapid containment of newly found virus. No stone should be left unturned in this last ditch effort for extermination of polio virus form environmental circulation. India's battle against polio will be cited as the biggest public health achievement or the most expensive public health failure.

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