On March 27, 2014, India, and the World Health Organisation’s South-East Asia region was officially declared polio-free.
Six years later for a country once considered the most difficult to bring to zero cases, it’s still a significant feat of historical importance.
The journey to this milestone, however, has been strewn with obstacles. Some of these remain sharp in my mind to this day as efforts to keep polio at bay in India continue.
One of my most evocative memories of India’s challenges is from the year 2000 when I was traveling through a remote village in western Uttar Pradesh.
I remember coming across a large pond, completely green and dark, choked with algae and filth. That pond was the lifeline of the village. There was a buffalo bathing in it; a few women were washing their clothes along its edge; and a couple of young children were jostling each other, filling up bottles with its murky water.
A scene that, years later, makes one shudder with the understanding of how easily unsanitary living conditions and impure drinking water exacerbate the spread of polio.
A Starting Point
Understanding polio’s virulent path, and how easily it spreads, primarily affecting children under the age of five, Rotary realised it would need to collaborate with stakeholders across sectors, and around the world, if it wanted to truly make an impact. Its vision was to bring together the knowledge, resources, and expertise necessary to deliver immunisations and stopping this vaccine-preventable disease for good.
As a step in this direction, Rotary International launched PolioPlus in 1985, formalising the first mass vaccination effort to end polio.
Then, in 1988—when polio paralysed more than 1,000 children a day around the world and more than half of the world’s cases were in India—Rotary formed the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) with the World Health Organisation, UNICEF, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in partnership with national governments.
The Gates Foundation, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance later joined, and the public-private partnership has since become the largest public health initiative of its kind in history. Thanks to the GPEI’s efforts, nearly 19 million people are alive and walking today who would have otherwise been paralysed or killed by the virus.
Critical Components-Volunteers and Social Mobilisers
As the GPEI partners joined together, so too did a global network of millions of support volunteers who have collectively vaccinated more than 2.5 billion children around the world to date.
In India, these volunteers—including countless Rotary members--remain critical to the ongoing success of the program both in the field and through advocacy efforts.
In particular, Rotary members have mobilised communities for mass polio vaccination campaigns, otherwise known as National Immunisation Days (NIDs).
In the country, more than 3,800 Rotary clubs and 150,000 Rotary members participate every year in making NIDs and Sub National Immunisation Days (SNIDs) a success in their respective regions as they continue to help to deliver the oral polio vaccine (OPV) to India’s 174 million children.
And, in addition to organising street rallies, distributing educational materials and even assisting with surveillance activities, these volunteers have also enlisted the support of local influencers and religious leaders—such as ulema in Uttar Pradesh--to engage vaccine-hesitant parents at the community level.
What’s more, the network of women who comprise India’s Social Mobilisation Network (SMNet) have also played a crucial role in India’s success by reaching vaccine-hesitant and remote populations in communities throughout the country to raise awareness about vaccination campaigns and the benefits of immunisation.
The Road Ahead
Although polio is on the verge of becoming the second human disease in history to be eradicated, the wild poliovirus lurks nearby—it continues to circulate within Pakistan’s borders, and India must not become complacent with its progress. Rather, we must double our commitment to ensuring that no child anywhere will ever again suffer its devastating effects.
As we remain vigilant in the global eradication effort, we must also leverage what we’ve learned from the polio eradication efforts in India and apply these insights, partnerships and infrastructure to serve other public health goals. For instance, Mission Indradhanush, a government-led initiative focused on routine immunisation against seven vaccine-preventable diseases (including polio), relies heavily on knowledge gained from the polio program.
India’s polio legacy may also help frame the response to other global public health issues.
As the world faces new health challenges daily, the lessons learned from India’s battle with polio will be employed in response to the current COVID-19 pandemic and will help to combat future global health challenges for years to come.
(Mr Deepak Kapur is the Chairman of Rotary International (RI-INPPC)
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