SHAHPARA, India
March 27, 2014 (AP)
The scourge of polio ends in India (click here) with a lively 4-year-old girl,
Rukhsar Khatoon, who became ill as a baby after her parents forgot to
get her vaccinated.
Her barely perceptible limp the only lingering sign of the disease,
Rukhsar was the last person to contract polio in the nation of 1.2
billion people.
The World Health Organization formally declared India polio-free on
Thursday, after three years with no new cases. It said the milestone
means the entire Southeast Asian region, home to a quarter of the
world's population, is considered free of the disease.
Being declared polio-free once was considered all but impossible in a
nation hobbled by corruption, poor sanitation and profound poverty.
Although the disease could return, eradicating it is a landmark public
health achievement....
