The Hindu : New Delhi News : Expert sees role for community leaders in anti-polio drive

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Wednesday, Jan 10, 2007
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Expert sees role for community leaders in anti-polio drive

Staff Reporter

`Programme has not performed as well as it should have been'

NEW DELHI: Political will is the most vital component for a successful pulse polio immunisation programme in any country, according to the Immediate Chairman of the International PolioPlus Committee of Rotary International, William T. Sergeant.

"It is not just the federal government of a country, but also the State governments which need to actively participate in the programme to ensure that it reaches out to everyone," he told reporters here on Monday.

Mr. Sergeant -- who retired as Chair of International PolioPlus Committee this past year -- asserted that it was important to involve the community leaders, especially in the case of minorities, for wider publicity of the programme.

"Some countries where we worked on polio, we faced a problem with the minorities. They were poor, less educated and suspicious of the (polio) programme. It is important to dispel their fears and get them along."

Mr. Sergeant -- who is renowned worldwide for his contributions in the field of polio eradication and has won many awards for his work -- is in India to receive an honorary doctorate from Karnataka University.

On the resurfacing of the deadly disease in some of the Indian States, he said the polio eradication programme did not perform "as well as it should have" across the country. "I do not know if there were any loopholes in India's programme. Since we are using the same vaccine everywhere, the only logic for the new polio cases is that we must have missed some children somewhere," said Mr. Sergeant who witnessed the National Immunisation Day in Meerut in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh on Sunday.

"Polio in India had been considerably going down till it reappeared in 2005 especially in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. The polio programme was good but not successful as we failed to immunise all the children. Partly because of lack of awareness among the parents and partly because of logistics," he explained, adding that it was not difficult though to wipe out the disease again.

India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria are the only four countries of the world that have never been able to eradicate the poliovirus from their soil.

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