Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad inaugurated a pulse polio campaign in Jaipur, as part of an effort to ensure that India remains polio free.
AP
India has not reported a case of polio for the last two years. Speaking at the event, Azad said that the government was taking polio eradication very seriously.
India has also stepped up vigilance at its borders to prevent the re-entry of polio from Pakistan.
The Times of India reported that the Minister administered the polio drops to a seventh-month-old baby, while workers also immunised 17 children from Pakistan at the Munabao railway station.
India’s close proximity to polio endemic Pakistan and Afghanistan, the significant movement of the international population and the fact that India has exported polio to countries near and far such as Nepal, Tajikistan, Angola and Bangladesh puts this country at the risk of importing the polio virus.
India has declared 2012-13 as the year of intensifying routine immunisation.
(with inputs from IANS)
