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Returnees will be vaccinated against polio, says Mansukh Mandaviya
Afghanistan and Pakistan are the only two remaining polio endemic countries in the world.
India on Sunday decided to vaccinate all returnees from war-torn Afghanistan against the wild polio virus, Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Sunday.
“We have decided to vaccinate Afghanistan returnees with free Polio Vaccine - OPV & fIPV, as a preventive measure against Wild Polio Virus. Congratulations to the Health Team for their efforts to ensure public health. Take a look at the vaccine drive at Delhi International Airport,” tweeted the Union health minister.
This comes as part of India’s evacuation operations from Kabul in the backdrop of the deteriorating situation in the city after its takeover by the Taliban after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are the only two remaining polio endemic countries in the world.
“Since the infection is still prevalent in our neighbouring countries, including Afghanistan, it was decided to go for mass inoculation of all returnees against the infection as a preventive measure,” said a senior government official aware of the matter, on condition of anonymity.
“Dedicated health teams have been deployed to vaccinate all returnees where the flights land. Even though India has been polio free for a while, it is important to continue with the efforts that resulted in eradication of the disease from the country as there always runs a risk of the disease re-entering the country as long as it is prevalent in other countries,” added the official.
Close to 540 people from Afghanistan, including Indians, have so far landed in India at different airports since the crisis in the country.
“Ministry of external affairs is sharing itinerary of incoming flights that they are organising; based on the details provided by them, the recipient airport’s APHO (Airport Health Organisation) in collaboration with the States is doing this exercise,” said another senior central government official in the know of things, on condition of anonymity.
“The vaccination and Covid-19 testing of Afghan migrants who landed at the Hindon airforce station in Ghaziabad is being taken care of by teams from the Urban Primary Health Centre, Karhera,” added the official.
According to Unicef, disruption in the polio vaccination programme in the war-torn country lead to increase in wild polio virus cases, and polio circulation remained particularly high in the southern region of Afghanistan that contributed to 66% of the total national cases in 2020.
In India, the last polio case was recorded in January 2011. And on March 27, 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared India polio free, since then no cases of wild polio infection have been reported from anywhere in the country.
India’s polio immunization programme has been one of the largest in the world and so meticulously implemented that the country got polio cases down from 741 in 2009 – the highest in the world -- to one within a year, with the last case was confirmed in West Bengal on January 13, 2011.
Even now India conducts the polio immunisation drive twice a year, followed by mop-up rounds to cover all those children who may have been missed in the primary rounds. “We have a robust polio surveillance mechanism in place in the country; as long as there are cases of wild polio still getting reported even from a single country in the world, we will have to be vigilant,” said the first official cited above.
