The [b]World Health Organisation[/b] has declared India free of the crippling polio virus, making the country’s almost two-decade-long, multi-billion-dollar effort one of the biggest public health achievements in recent times, reports [s]Reuters[/s]. A country can be certified as polio-free after three years without any new cases. Afghanistan, Pakistan and N[b][/b]igeria are the only countries in the world left where the virus remains endemic, largely due to violent conflicts, weak health systems and poor sanitation. In 1988, the [b]Global Polio Eradication Initiative[/b] was launched to ensure comprehensive, nationwide vaccination in endemic nations. More than 350,000 children across 125 countries were being paralysed or killed by polio every year at that time. That figure has since been reduced by 99.9% and in 2013, just 406 cases of polio were reported.
[link url=http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/27/us-india-polio-idUSBREA2Q0W820140327?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews]Full Reuters report[/link]
[link url=http://www.searo.who.int/entity/campaigns/polio-certification/en]WHO data[/link]