Presented at: India Expert Advisory Group (IEAG) Meeting

This PowerPoint presentation was part of a December 2006 meeting hosted by the India Expert Advisory Group (IEAG) and held in New Delhi, India. Participating organisations included the World Health Organization (WHO), Rotary International, the United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Presented by the Government of Bihar’s State Health Society, this slideshow provided an overview of the epidemiological status of polio in Bihar, India for 2006. This included the severity of paralysis in the current 48 polio cases in this state. In addition, polio eradication initiatives taken by the Government of Bihar over the last year are detailed.

Bihar’s polio eradication programme, now overseen by the state’s Honourable Chief Minister, has seen the following changes in 2006:

• Continuous assessment at all levels of administration, identifying of gaps and immediate implementation of corrective measures
• An increase of almost 40% in the number of house-to-house vaccination teams that include female vaccinators.
• Newborn tracking, with the introduction of a booklet to document follow-up vaccination doses in June 2006
• Intensified activities in high-risk areas
• Mobilisation of transit vaccination teams during festivals, one of which saw 1.55 million children vaccinated in 34 districts over a 15-day period

These activities have resulted in the following outcomes:

• Improvement of performance indicators
• Stablisation and improvement of immunisation coverage
• Restriction of wild poliovirus (WPV) to a localised area, until recent spread.
• Reduction in the number of poor performing blocks, and breaking up of clusters of such blocks

In conclusion, the State Health Society emphasised the definite improvement in operational quality and the maintenance of coverage and quality at this high level by the government over the previous year. Despite these efforts, increases in the number of WPV cases in 2006 necessitate a review of the state programme as soon as possible. Expectations from the IEAG were also outlined, including a change in programme approach and the exploration of more technical and operational possibilities.

For the full presentation, please see contact details below.