India Completes First Polio-Free Year

Education programs geared toward dispelling fears about vaccination could be the key to ridding the developing world of the disease.

Amid all the doom and gloom of 2011, occasional moments of human triumph shone through, such as the news that there were no new cases of polio in India last year – a first for the world's second-most populous country. While the debilitating disease has been eradicated from the developed world, it has persisted in a handful of developing countries, notably Pakistan, Nigeria, and Afghanistan. Not two decades ago, there were nearly 5,000 new cases of polio each year in India. Poor sanitation, malnutrition, and distrust of vaccinations had long contributed to polio's persistence in India, but efforts to educate the public of the benefits of widespread vaccination, especially the National Polio Surveillance Project, appear to have turned the tide. Whether India's neighbours will follow suit remains to be seen, but at least India provides a template to look to.