India on Brink of Eleminating Polio

India is close to eradicating polio but needs to make a final push, the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday as she helped inoculate babies against the disease.

"Coming here to this clinic and seeing how organized they are makes me feel very confident that this can be successful," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, the CDC director, touring a community health clinic in one of the poorest neighborhoods of the Indian capital.

"We have the leadership, the support of the government and the partners, but seeing the children makes me appreciate why it's so important," said Gerberding.

One small girl, her hair braided in red ribbons, her blue school uniform freshly pressed, told the visitors through a Hindi translator about her family, school and friends. It was easy to over look the brace on her right leg, covered by a red kneesock.

The World Health Organization estimates that 99 percent of all new polio cases in the world are in three countries - India, Pakistan and Nigeria. India alone accounts for 83 percent of new cases. A reduction in polio vaccination initiatives in India last year led to a sixfold surge in disease.

"The big picture here is that we are partners with WHO, UNICEF and the Rotary International to eradicate polio in India and elsewhere in the world," said Gerberding. "Part of why we're here now is to really focus attention on how close we are to being able to do that in India. We have to go that last mile."

The disease, caused by the human poliovirus, has been eradicated in Europe, the Americas, much of Asia and Australia. It usually infects children under the age of five through contaminated drinking water and attacks the central nervous system, causing paralysis, muscular atrophy and deformation and, in some cases, death.

The WHO and the Indian government stepped up polio vaccinations this year, immunizing more than 230 million children in the six states where the disease was most severe. WHO statistics indicate the initiative has been successful so far - new polio cases in India as of October were 141, compared with 1,556 new cases diagnosed in 2002.

The goal of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, a collaborative effort involving the WHO, CDC, the volunteer group Rotary International and the United Nations Children's Fund, is to eliminate the disease by 2005.

Gerberding said she was trying to support that effort by her visit to the health clinic in the Trilokpuri section of eastern New Delhi, a recipient of polio vaccines from the WHO-led initiative. Gerberding and other American officials used droppers to administer vaccine to babies brought in by their mothers.

The health center and 133 others like it, plus 15 maternity clinics, provide basic health care services such as immunizations to 1.2 million of New Delhi's poorest residents.

Polio eradication measures are funded by outside organizations, but the city pays for the other services, said city commissioner Rakesh Mehta.

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