Indian polio cases rise fivefold

Indian polio cases rise fivefold

India saw a more than fivefold increase in polio cases last year, a new health report has confirmed.

Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are the worst-affected states

The report by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said there were 1,556 cases of polio in India in 2002, compared to 268 the year before.

The increase was blamed on a drop in large-scale supplemental immunisation programmes.

To combat the rise, India and the World Health Organisation have this year launched one of the world's largest polio immunisation drives.

The campaign seeks to vaccinate every unprotected child under five, the age-group polio mainly afflicts.

Wiped out

The two worst-affected Indian states - Uttar Pradesh and Bihar - are a particular target.

The current timeline objective for the polio eradication initiative can still be met

Victor Caceres, CDC doctor

Of the new cases, 1,337, or 86%, were in the two densely populated northern states.

The Atlanta-based CDC said the Indian Government and global health groups had increased funding and personnel for eradication efforts.

The disease, spread by contact with an infected person, has been wiped out in the Americas, Western Pacific and Europe as a result of vaccination programmes.

The World Health Organisation plans to eradicate polio worldwide by 2005.

"We think with the appropriate measures to intensify and improve the quality of the supplemental immunisation activities that the situation in India can be turned around," CDC medical officer Victor Caceres said.

"The current timeline objective for the polio eradication initiative can still be met."

Polio, which once afflicted millions of children worldwide, attacks the central nervous system, often causing paralysis, muscular atrophy and deformity.

In 2002, the disease was only endemic to India, Nigeria, Niger, Egypt, Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, Ethiopia and Angola.