(
Deepak Kapur is India National PolioPlus chair for Rotary International.)
Earlier this year, India reached an unprecedented milestone. For the last three years, the log books have shown an absence of any polio cases in the country - the last being Rukhsar Khatoon of West Bengal. After an arduous quest lasting decades, India was officially declared polio-free in March 2014.
This World Polio Day, our first as a certified polio-free country, Indians should take a moment to reflect upon the magnitude of our accomplishment-and perhaps more importantly, consider how to use what we've learned to accomplish even more.
Eliminating polio from our borders was no mean feat. India is one of the most difficult terrains in the world to battle the disease. Ousting the malady required years of perseverance, innovation and a vast public health campaign that has since become a model for conquering health challenges under the most complex conditions.
Our success was achieved through sustained collaboration and effort by the entire spectrum of those involved. Government leadership at all tiers was complemented by unwavering support from international agencies, NGOs, doctors, nurses and millions of dedicated health workers. Groups like the Rotary Muslim Ulema Committee partnered with religious leaders to educate parents about the life-saving properties of the polio vaccine.
The dedication of so many was augmented by expertise from our scientific community and the full financial backing of the Centre. An India Expert Advisory Group swiftly addressed technical challenges, such as reaching high-risk children missed by polio immunization drives. The government and public-private partnerships contributed more than Rs. 12000 crores, ensuring resources were available to sustain a lengthy campaign.
And yet our triumph does not give us license to become complacent. A polio-free India is not a polio-free world, and until the virus is eliminated from its final reservoirs, polio will remain only a plane flight or bus ride away. For that reason, we must continue to routinely immunize our children and maintain vigilant surveillance systems to monitor for signs of the virus.
We must also ensure the expertise and infrastructure of such a successful program do not go to waste, by applying them to other health initiatives. For example, the National Polio Surveillance Project already helps monitor and build capacity for India's measles and Japanese encephalitis programs. Health professionals now follow the polio program's strategy of hosting one-day health camps to create a favourable environment for distributing basic services, addressing chronic diseases and encouraging better hygiene.
Avoiding complacency also means assigning equal priority to other diseases that prey upon our country's children. Pneumonia claims nearly 300,000 Indian children each year and diarrhoea another 140,000 - roughly one-quarter of the global total for each. These deaths are all the more tragic because they are avoidable: simple measures exist to protect children, treat cases and prevent infection from ever happening. Safe, effective vaccines against the leading causes of diarrhoea and pneumonia exist and, estimates suggest, could save the life of an Indian child every six minutes.
Earlier this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a laudable step forward by announcing the introduction of four new vaccines - rotavirus, rubella, polio (inactivated) and an adult vaccine against Japanese encephalitis - into India's Universal Immunization Programme (UIP). Thanks to lessons from the polio campaign, we are already equipped with the knowledge and capacity to act swiftly on his proclamation and deliver these vaccines to the children who need them.
We should view the legacy of our polio programme as only half-written. With the virus gone, now is the time to shift the full weight of its vigour and experience to tackling the myriad other health challenges we face. If the polio experience teaches us nothing else, we must never forget that with sufficient will and resources, India can accomplish anything.
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