India to be declared as polio-free

BANGALORE: Thanks to the sustained fight against the dreaded disease Polio, the country was to be declared in the world as a polio free nation, said Secretary for the department of the Health and Family Welfare  Dr E V Ramana Reddy.Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Dr Reddy informed that in the last 18 months not even a single case of polio was detected across India. He added that the country’s being free from fresh polio cases since January 2011 was a  significant  development since India reported around 32,000 polio cases in 1995.“If no fresh cases are reported in the next 18 months, the United Nations would declare India as a polio-free country,” he said. He declared Karnataka to be an ‘almost polio free state’ as the last case which was detected at Raichur in 2007, had migrated from other states.He said that as a part of the continued drive against the disease, another nationwide immunisation will be conducted on February 19 and April 1.  He said in the drive around 7,90,000 children between the ages of zero to five would be administered the polio vaccine and Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda would launch the programme at his office on the morning of February 19.