When was India declared Polio free?

Appeared in: MP CHO-2020

Explanation

The World Health Organization (WHO) certified its South-East Asia Region, which includes India, as polio-free on March 27, 2014.
This certification is granted only after a region has gone three consecutive years without any reported cases of wild poliovirus.
India's last reported case of wild polio was on January 13, 2011, in West Bengal.
Completing three years without a case in January 2014 paved the way for the official declaration in March 2014.

Option B: This date is five years after the actual certification. By 2019, India had already maintained its polio-free status for half a decade.
Option C: This date is six years after the official declaration. The milestone was achieved much earlier.
Option D: This is factually incorrect. India was a major success story in the global polio eradication effort and was certified polio-free in 2014.

Clinical Relevance

Nursing practice connection: This is primarily an exam-oriented knowledge point with limited direct bedside application, so retain Milestones in Public Health: Polio Eradication in India as background academic context rather than a clinical decision trigger.
Maintaining polio-free status is a continuous effort. Nurses are at the forefront of this by ensuring high routine immunization coverage and participating in supplementary immunization activities (SIAs) like Pulse Polio rounds.
A key nursing responsibility is surveillance for Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP). Any child under 15 presenting with sudden onset of weakness or paralysis must be immediately reported to public health authorities for investigation to rule out polio.
What if? If a case of AFP is detected, the nurse's immediate action is to report it to the District Immunization Officer within 24 hours. This triggers a rapid response, including stool sample collection and investigation, to confirm or rule out poliovirus and prevent any potential outbreak.

How to Approach the Question

This is a factual recall question asking for a specific date of a major public health event in India.
First, identify the core subject: India's polio-free declaration.
Access your knowledge base on national health programs and their milestones.
Recall the timeline: The last case was in early 2011. The requirement for certification is three years of no cases. This places the event sometime in or after early 2014.
Evaluate the options based on this timeline. 27th March 2014 fits perfectly. The other dates are too late, and 'Not yet' is incorrect.

Concept Tested & Keywords

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E6 Parks TextBook of Preventive & Social Medicine part 1 — Subpart B (pp 202-403 of 604) pp. 60-62, 53-55

Practise the full MP CHO-2020

Attempt every question from this paper in a timed mock, then review the full solution for each one.