Long way to go to eradicate polio from India: Azad

Cases of polio have come down significantly in the country in the last decade but the country still has to go a long way before the disease is completely eradicated, Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said on Saturday.

Cases of polio have come down significantly in the country in the last decade but the country still has to go a long way before the disease is completely eradicated, Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said on Saturday.

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He was speaking on the occasion of the National Immunisation Day, inaugurated by President Pratibha Patil at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.

Azad said the case of polio have come down from thousands to hundreds since the Pulse Polio Campaign was launched in 1995.

"However, there is still a long way to go to eradicate polio from the country," he said.

The Minister said the cases of polio is still high in Uttar Pradesh and in the Kosi river belt in Bihar.

A multi-pronged strategy with special focus on cleanliness will be adopted by the ministry to tackle the the disease, he said.

"In this round of the Pulse Polio Campaign, the bivalent vaccine is being introduced in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh to tackle the P-I and P-III strains of polio," he said.