Say Goodbye to PAIN: India removed from Polio Endemic Country List

Immunization Day in New Delhi with Rotary

In New Delhi, on the 25^th of February, Ghulam Nabi Azad, India’s minister of Health and Family Welfare, made the announcement at the Polio Summit that the World Health Organization has officially removed India from the list of polio-endemic countries.  At the time, there were only four countries in the world left endemic.  These four (PAIN) included Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Nigeria.  Today one is removed from the list.  

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said at the summit that it was a huge success that the country had made it through an entire year without a single new case of polio reported.  India's last reported case was a two-year-old girl in West Bengal State on 13 January 2011. Before polio eradication can be certified in India, it must go two more years without another case of the disease.

The Tower of London illuminated on Feb. 23, 2012 to celebrate 107 years of Rotary

Until 2009, India accounted for nearly half the number of the world’s polio cases. A chief factor in the country’s success has been the widespread use of the bivalent oral polio vaccine, which is effective against both remaining types of the poliovirus. Another has been rigorous monitoring, which has helped reduce the number of children missed by health workers during National Immunization Days to less than 1 percent, according to WHO.   

Rotary International has played a major role in helping to stop the transmission of polio in India. Rotary has been a spearheading partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative since 1988, along with WHO, UNICEF, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is also a key supporter of the initiative.    

Immunizing children in Bangkok with Rotary in February

Sporting their signature yellow vests and caps, the nearly 119,000 Rotarians in India have helped administer vaccine to children, organize free health camps and polio awareness rallies, and distribute banners, caps, comic books, and other items.

Rotary should be immensely proud for the work it has done to rid the world of polio.  Having recently been on an immunization trip myself, I experienced the direct impact that Rotary has on the lives of so many.  Congratulations Rotary and India on an incredible success.  But Rotary’s work is not done…and then there were three.

To read more about India's first polio-free year, Click Here! 

To see pictures of other famous landmarks illuminated for the 107th anniversary of Rotary, Click Here!