India's successful polio vaccination campaign could bring first disease-free year

"In India, a mass vaccination campaign involving more than a million volunteers reduced cases nationally by 94 percent between 2009 and 2010, from 741 to 42, and down to the single case last year," the Guardian reports, adding, "If in India as a whole there are no more confirmed cases before 13 January, the country will have completed its first year without a new victim. And if polio is gone from India, the only countries where the disease is still endemic would be Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan."

"The success is due to a combination of highly motivated local workers, philanthropy, the involvement of international health bodies and the … support of local government," the newspaper writes, adding "Equally important in overcoming the last bastions of the disease … has been the consent of local religious figures," many of whom initially spoke out against vaccination (Burke, 1/2).