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| India set for polio-free landmark | India set for polio-free landmark |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| India is set to mark three years since its last case of polio was reported. | India is set to mark three years since its last case of polio was reported. |
| The landmark is seen as confirmation of one of India's biggest public health successes, achieved through a massive and sustained immunisation programme. | The landmark is seen as confirmation of one of India's biggest public health successes, achieved through a massive and sustained immunisation programme. |
| Only one case of polio was recorded in 2011, down from 741 in 2009. | Only one case of polio was recorded in 2011, down from 741 in 2009. |
| Last year the World Health Organisation removed India from the list of polio-endemic countries. Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria remain polio-endemic countries. | Last year the World Health Organisation removed India from the list of polio-endemic countries. Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria remain polio-endemic countries. |
| This refers to countries in which the virus is circulating freely and the transmission of the disease has not been stopped. | This refers to countries in which the virus is circulating freely and the transmission of the disease has not been stopped. |
| Reports say that although India's government is due to declare the country polio-free on Monday, the WHO will certify the status on 11 February after testing the last of some samples. | Reports say that although India's government is due to declare the country polio-free on Monday, the WHO will certify the status on 11 February after testing the last of some samples. |
| Nicole Deutsch, head of polio operations for UN children's charity, Unicef in India, described the landmark of three years without polio in India as "a monumental milestone". | |
| "India has now set other important public health goals as a result of the confidence that the country has got from the successful eradication of polio," she told the AFP news agency, citing a new measles eradication goal. | |
| The last case of polio was reported from the eastern state of West Bengal in 2011 when an 18-year-old girl was found to have contracted the disease. | |
| Rukshar Khatoon is now going to school and leads a "normal life" although she still suffers pain in her right leg from the disease, her doctors and parents told the AFP news agency. | |
| "She can now stand on her feet and walk, but can't run. When her friends play, she remains a spectator," her father Abdul Shah said. | |
| Mr Shah said it had been a "grave mistake" to only get his son vaccinated for polio, but not his two daughters. | |
| After the eradication of smallpox in 1980, polio is the second disease in India that has been eliminated through immunisation. | |
| Nearly 2.3 million volunteers visit 209 million homes to vaccinate some 170 million children under five years of age in India during every round of immunisation. | |
| Polio is capable of causing crippling disability or death within hours. It plagued societies in ancient times - and was present in more than 100 countries even in the 1980s, when it left 350,000 people paralysed each year. | Polio is capable of causing crippling disability or death within hours. It plagued societies in ancient times - and was present in more than 100 countries even in the 1980s, when it left 350,000 people paralysed each year. |