Could India's Success Fighting Polio Motivate Rival Pakistan?

March 20, 2012 from VOA News

Last month, India recorded a milestone in its effort to eradicate polio when it marked one year without any new infections. During the same year, Pakistan recorded 180 new polio cases, the most of any country. Pakistani authorities say national pride is now at stake for polio eradication and they are hoping to overcome years of setbacks from natural disasters, misinformation and war. VOA's Brian Padden reports from Islamabad.

(more) (less)

In This Video

Pakistan

Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a sovereign country in South Asia. With a population exceeding 180 million people, it is the sixth most populous country in the world. Located at the crossroads of the strategically important regions of South Asia, Cent... Explore this topic

Polio

Poliomyelitis, often called polio or infantile paralysis, is an acute, viral, infectious disease spread from person to person, primarily via the fecal-oral route. The term derives from the Greek poliós, meaning "grey", myelós, referring to the grey matter of the spinal cord, a... Explore this topic

Vaccination

Vaccination is the administration of antigenic material to stimulate an individual's immune system to develop adaptive immunity to a pathogen. Vaccines can prevent or ameliorate morbidity from infection. The effectiveness of vaccination has been widely studied and verified; fo... Explore this topic

Polio eradication

The global eradication of poliomyelitis is a public health effort to eliminate all cases of poliomyelitis infection around the world. The global effort, begun in 1988 and led by the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the Rotary Foundation, has reduced the number of annual d... Explore this topic

Islamabad

Islamabad is the capital city of Pakistan and the ninth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory, the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.15 million as of 2011. The greater Islamabad-Rawalpindi Metropolitan Area is the ... Explore this topic

Shahnaz Wazir Ali

Shahnaz Wazir Ali is a social activist and a Special Assistant to the Prime Minister of Pakistan. She is the chairperson of Higher Education Commission. Explore this topic

India-Pakistan relations

Relations between India and Pakistan have been strained by a number of historical and political issues, and are defined by the violent partition of British India in 1947, the Kashmir dispute and the numerous military conflicts fought between the two nations. Consequently, even... Explore this topic

India

Intian tasavalta eli Intia, viralliselta nimeltään Bharat, Republic of India, on liittovaltio Etelä-Aasiassa. Intia on pinta-alaltaan maailman seitsemänneksi suurin valtio ja asukasluvultaan maailman toiseksi suurin. Intian naapurimaita ovat Bangladesh, Myanmar, Kiina, Bhutan,... Explore this topic

Internally displaced person

An internally displaced person is someone who is forced to flee his or her home but who remains within his or her country's borders. They are often referred to as refugees, although they do not fall within the current legal definition of a refugee. At the end of 2006 it was es... Explore this topic

US-Pakistan relations

Pakistan – United States relations or Pakistan-American relations, refers to the international, historical, and cultural bilateral relationship between the State of Pakistan and the United States, with both countries first establishing diplomatic relations on October 20, 1947,... Explore this topic

Also See

Pakistan

Polio

Vaccination

Watch Next

1:00

Pakistan Test Fires Nuclear Missile Capable of Striking India

ITN News | Apr 10

While the world's attention is on the nuclear standoff in between North and South Korea, Pakistan test firea its new nuclear-capable Hatf IV Shahee...