India marks milestone in fight against polio

[pinto]

India marks milestone in fight against polio
By Ravi Nessman | Associated Press

NEW DELHI (AP) — India will celebrate a full year since its last reported case of polio on Friday, a major victory in a global eradication effort that seemed stalled just a few years ago.

If no previously undisclosed cases of the crippling disease are discovered, India will no longer be considered polio endemic, leaving only Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria on that list.

"This is a game changer in a huge way," said Bruce Aylward, head of the World Health Organization's global polio campaign.

The achievement gives a major morale boost to health advocates and donors who had begun to lose hope of ever defeating the stubborn disease that the world had promised to eradicate by 2000.

http://news.yahoo.com/india-marks-milestone-fight-against-polio-100915950.html

[bemildred]

1. Awesome.

I remember polio, this is a stunning accomplishment, like wiping out smallpox.

[Warpy]

2. Nigeria will likely be the last thanks to the religious charlatans

who tell people their sons' dicks will fall off if they immunize them against polio.

Ending the disease in India is a truly stunning achievement since many of those billion people live in poverty that you and I can't imagine, with the ignorance that always comes with it.

I am astonished and humbled that India has managed to do this.