India Frees Itself of Polio

An anonymous reader writes: It's been three years since the last recorded polio case in India and health officials hope to officially certify India polio free in the next few weeks. ' Hamid Jafari, director of the WHO's polio-eradication campaign, says the agency's ambitious quest to stop all polio transmission by the end of 2014 is now within reach. If that is achieved, and no new cases crop up for three years, polio—like smallpox—will be officially banished from the planet. "India was one of the most important sources" from where the virus spread to other countries, said Dr. Jafari.'