"Around 174 million children of less than five years age across the country will be given polio drops as part of the drive of government to sustain polio eradication from the country," a Health Ministry statement said.
Lauding the efforts of nearly 23 lakh volunteers and 1.5 lakh supervisors for eradicating polio from India, Health Minister J P Nadda said that there has been no case of wild polio since January 13, 2011.
Affirming that India is looking forward to playing a major role in implementation of "Polio endgame strategy", Nadda informed about the introduction of inactivated polio vaccine in routine immunization programme and a switch from trivalent Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) to bivalent OPV six months later in a synchronised manner globally.
"A travel advisory has also been issued as per WHO guidelines to vaccinate all travellers who are travelling between India and eight polio-infected countries comprising Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Cameroon, Syria, Ethiopia, Somalia & Kenya," he said.
He said that an Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan (EPRP) has been put in place under which Rapid Response Teams (RRT) have been formed in all states and Union Territories to respond urgently to any importations.