Varying progress on polio
Many experts think that the 2012 target for the eradiction of polio is likely to be missed, but hope has been renewed following the remarkable success of anti-polio programmes in Nigeria and India, two global hotspots for polio infection. In Nigeria, improved funding and management of public health programmes coupled with better ties between such programmes and local Muslim leaders, who had previously obstructed efforts to combat polio, have resulted in only 2 children becoming paralyzed with polio so far this year compared with 123 during the same period last year. Meanwhile, in India, tracking of the virus to the vast flood plain in the state of Bihar has allowed for a more targeted vaccination strategy that has contributed to the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar reporting no cases of infection since January 2010, the first time that no new infections have been reported for 4 consecutive months. Globally, such efforts have contributed to a 75% drop in new cases compared with the same period in 2009. However, although this news is welcome, it is tempered by the recent detection of type 1 polio virus in diagnostic samples in Tajikistan. Although Tajikistan is in Central Asia geographically, the WHO groups the country into its Europe region, which makes this the first outbreak in the region since it was certified polio free in 2002. NY Times /WHO
