What is Pulse Polio Programme of Government of India ? What is $OPV$ ? Why is it that India is yet to eradicate Polio ?

Pulse Polio is an immunisation campaign established by the government of India to eliminate poliomyelitis (polio) in India by vaccinating all children under the age of five years against the polio virus.

The project fights poliomyelitis through a large-scale pulse vaccination programme and monitoring for polio cases.

In $1995$ , following the Global Polio Eradication Initiative of the World Health Organization ($1988$), India launched Pulse Polio immunisation program with Universal Immunization Program which aimed at $100 \%$ coverage.

The last reported cases of wild polio in India were in West Bengal and Gujarat on $13$ January $2011 .$ On $27$ March $2014$, the World Health Organization ($WHO$) declared India a polio free country, since no cases of wild polio had been reported in for three years.

$\rightarrow$ Polio vaccines are the vaccines used to prevent poliomyelitis (polio).

One type uses inactivated poliovirus and is given by injection ($IPV$).

$\Rightarrow$ While the other type uses weakened poliovirus and is given by mouth ($OPV$).

The World Health Organization recommends all children be vaccinated against polio.

The two vaccines have eliminated polio from most of the world.

The oral polio vaccine was developed by Albert Sabin and came into commercial use in $1961$ .