- By Fergus Walsh BBC medical correspondent, in Delhi
One by one the young children open their mouths to receive the two drops of polio vaccine. Then they hold out their hand to get their “purple pinky” – one finger painted with indelible purple ink to show they’ve been immunised. Some of the children try, and fail, to suck off the ink because they want to get another toy – some stickers, a balloon or pencil – as a reward for coming to the booth.
There are 7,000 impromptu vaccination booths across the capital. Across India, these regular National Immunisation Days aim to reach more than 170 million children under five – the group most at risk from polio. I’m here to witness India’s successful fight against polio.
Several of the booths in Delhi are staffed by volunteers from Britain; they are all members of Rotary – the worldwide network of clubs of business and community volunteers. The Rotary volunteers – wearing bright yellow shirts – attract a lot of attention. Veronica Stabbins, from Windsor in Berkshire, is here with her husband Adrian – they immunise around 200 children in two hours.
She said:
“This is our third visit to India volunteering for Rotary. It is wonderful to be part of trying to eradicate this dreadful disease. When we go home we try to raise awareness of what still needs to be done.”
Another Rotary member, Jenny Schwarz from Merseyside, said:
“I’ve been raising money to fight polio for 25 years. My dream is to have a polio-free world.”
All the Rotary volunteers – there are more than 40 of them from Britain, and 500 from around the world – pay all the expenses of their trip and then often use the experience to do further fund-raising at home.
- Remarkable achievement
India used to be the epicentre of polio. In 1985, there were an estimated 150,000 cases in India and as recently as 2009 there were 741, more than any other country in the world. The world is now at a crossroads – it can build on the success of immunisation in India which has been polio-free for a year. If it does not, the risk is the virus will re-establish itself here and in other countries.
But its last case was in January 2011 – a remarkable achievement. But it won’t be officially removed from the list of polio endemic countries until the result of lab tests confirm that it is no longer to be found in sewage. That confirmation is expected in the next few weeks. It will leave three endemic countries: Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria where the virus has never been under control. All saw an increase in cases last year.
The success in India has been achieved through a partnership between the Indian government, with support from the World Health Organization (WHO), Rotary, Unicef and with major contributions from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Last year the UK government doubled its support to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI).
A visit to St Stephen’s Hospital in Delhi offers a stark reminder why polio used to be one of the world’s most feared diseases. Mohammad Zaid is 11 and he caught polio as a baby. The virus attacked the cells in his spinal cord, paralysing his legs which are now wasted.
He gets about by crawling, but is at the hospital for surgery. Mohammad will need four operations – to straighten each hip and knee – before he can be fitted with metal calipers so that he can finally walk.
Dr Mathew Varghese, head of orthopaedics, said children with polio don’t just suffer physically:
“Many of them drop out of school early and they face a stigma being disabled – and all this from a disease which can be prevented with a vaccine.”
Report taken from www.bbc.co.uk
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