President Pranab Mukherjee launched a pulse polio immunization programme by administering polio drops to children at Rashtrapati Bhavan today.
National Immunization Day is scheduled to be held on January 18. Children of less than five years age will be given polio drops as part of the Government of India's drive to sustain polio eradication from the region.
India has been implementing the pulse polio programme since 1995. In India, the last case of wild polio was reported on January 13, 2011. The South-East Asia region of WHO has been certified on March 27, 2014 as 'polio free', meaning that transmission of wild poliovirus has been interrupted in this block of 11 countries, including India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste for the last three years.
India is mindful of the risks that persist, both on account of indigenous transmission and importation. The risk of importation of wild polio virus from these countries with persistent ongoing transmission still persists and therefore high level of immunity in the population needs to be maintained.
The Government of India, therefore, continues to vaccinate children with polio vaccine on the occasion of National Immunization Day (NID) and Sub-NID.