Polio is an infectious disease that mostly infects kids that paralyzes those it infects. The first polio vaccine was released in 1957 and since then the vaccine has gotten rid of Polio in almost every country in the world. Now India joins the list of countries where polio has been eradicated. The last recorded case in India was in January 13 of 2011. It was a girl in Subharara village and now she only suffers a limp.
India this year has been declared Polio free by the World Health Education. When a country becomes Polio free, it means the disease has been destroyed in the country and that the only possible way it could come back is if the disease comes from a country that has not become Polio free. According to the World Health Organization as of 2013 Polio was at its all time low. From 1988 Polio cases have decreased by 99%. From 350,000 cases in 125 countries, to 223 cases in 3 countries in 2012. Only three countries remain that still have Polio epidemics are Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. If Polio does become eradicated in these last three areas, then 200,000 new cases of Polio could appear every ten years.
Even though India has been declared Polio free, doesn't mean everyone in the country is immune to the deadly disease. According to the deputy director health services in charge of the polio eradication program there are still some remnants of people who are reluctant to get their kids vaccinated. Many of the people who do not want to get their kids vaccinated believe that the vaccine will cause infertility in them.
Future generations will have to get the Polio vaccine in order to guarantee that the disease will never pop up again. In November of 2013 the World Health Organization reported 10 cases of polio in Syria, which have been the first in 14 years. The World Health Organization estimated that in 2011 that 95% of the children in Syria had been vaccinated. The current civil war in Syria has put a damper on the prevention and eradication of Polio as now it is estimated that 500,000 children have not been vaccinated since the beginning of the civil war. To combat the outbreak the World Health Organization plans to launch vaccine campaigns in the neighboring countries of Syria.
With the continued effort of the World Health Organization to help and educate people, maybe one day Polio will no longer be an issue.
India Polio Free - http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/close-to-victory-india-will-officially-be-declared-polio-free-on-monday/article1-1171899.aspx
Polio in Syria - http://cistranfinance.com/news/armenian-health-ministry-urges-syrian-armenian-children-to-get-polio-vaccine/666/
World Health Organization and Polio - http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs114/en/
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