World Health Organization certified India as Polio Free country

The World Health Organization (WHO)certified India as a Polio Free country on 27th March. This action of WHO made India one of the 11 countries of South-East Region to be free from polio virus. 

The official certificate was received by Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Union Health Minister in New Delhi. 

The polio was eradicated from the country with the help of technological innovations like indigenous bivalent polio vaccines, close monitoring of polio programme and adequate domestic financial resources.

• India’s victory over polio disease paved the way for polio-free certification for the South East Asia region of the WHO.
• The achievement has also made the South-East Asian Region, fourth WHO Region for being certified as polio-free.
• This certification was given by an independent commission under the WHO certification process.
• This region is a home for about a quarter of world’s population.
• The WHO South East Asia Region has 11 Member States namely Bangladesh, Bhutan, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste.