13 ms·

This is bigger news than most news stories you'll read this year, or this decade for that matter.

by pg 13y ago

namityadav 13y ago
Yes, we need to share and celebrate this kind of news a lot more. Link to the UNICEF site for those who can't read the WSJ article - http://www.unicef.org/india/health_3729.htm http://www.unicef.org/india/health_3729.htm
- theGimp 13y ago
  This should work if you want to look at the WSJ article -- they let you through their paywall if your referer is Google https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CC4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702303848104579312453860810752.html&ei=OxjTUonkAva2sAT18IGYDQ&usg=AFQjCNHDx6PsLz2H9Vpqj7sA5qa06LPX-Q&sig2=RcpJawCSZwxXm8ajAgvYaQ&bvm=bv.59026428,d.cWc https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&c...
linux_devil 13y ago
Hats off to Polio Vaccination campaign which takes place here in India . They really did a hard work . Broadcasting services spreading message related to vaccination and "door -to-door" free service of vaccination made it all possible with the help of NGO's.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
monsterix 13y ago
Here's the man credited to have started the polio eradication program in 1994. https://twitter.com/drharshvardhan https://twitter.com/drharshvardhan Dr. Harsh Vardhan has keenly taken it to its fruitful conclusion as well. The initiative to check polio started way back in 1978, with permanently disabled population still available across 5 alive generations. This number is likely to shrink rapidly in the next two decades, provided the polio vaccination program is kept abreast with advancing deadliness of poliovirus [1] and state's ability to maintain free vaccination. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poliovirus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poliovirus [Edited: Span of generations across which polio afflicted patients could be found is 5 and not 3 as per my original comment.]
- rikacomet 13y ago
  Have you done the research first, before politicizing the issue!? Dr.Harsh Vardhan, was a doctor like any other, in Delhi, one of the first three states in India to start the Polio program, meaning it was not his initiative, instead it was his job to be part of it. What really happened is explained carefully here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2696658/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2696658/
  - mikeash 13y ago
    I can't find any trace of politics in the comment you're replying to. Has it been edited?
    - ForHackernews 13y ago
      Maybe Dr. Vardhan is himself politically controversial for some reason? Or maybe it's considered "political" to give credit to one single doctor, when there were others spearheading the initiative as well?
    - kamaal 13y ago
      I think he means to say, Dr Harsh Vardhan is a leader of a major political party. Polio eradication in India was made possible by so many people one can't really thank them all by name. There are so many volunteers, who have worked on weekends going door to door to educate the parents and deliver the vaccination and they have done it over the years. There are doctors, nurses, government workers, even Bollywood actors who've done ads for free to spread awareness. So you can't really thank one person, one government or one organization. This was a national movement which succeeded.
    - rikacomet 13y ago
      Here's the man credited to have started the polio eradication program in 1994. the use of word "started" and the structure "the man" seems invisible to you? This is a prime example of Pushy Politics, which has been not just used, but over abused by fanatics. Distorting History, and if so much as someone (like me here) points it out... "a man can't make a mistake?" attitude then, makes these people feel invincible. Thus...I must quote Plato here: You can forgive a child for staying in darkness, but the real tragedy of life is when men choose to stay away from light.
avighnay 13y ago
In the last mile, the effort is very impressive and laudable. Agents/Volunteers make a door to door visit or there is an announcement via public address systems about the visit in that area. The vaccine is oral drops and is very easy to administer for the volunteers who can be late teens too sometimes. The vaccine is totally free and hence reaches even the poorest. It usually happens in the Jan-Feb time and is combined with TV ads with prominent celebrities endorsing the program, though I don't remember seeing the ads any more. Management of such programs over the populace of India by itself is worthy of praise. A similar process in India which is under rated is the election process. It is a worthy case study in management for any B school.
denzil_correa 13y ago
The reason would be that IF India eradicates itself of polio, we are a step closer (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigera etc.) to see ONLY the second disease (after smallpox) to be eradicated from the face of the earth.
- pdw 13y ago
  It would be third, the eradication of rinderpest was confirmed a couple of years ago.
aestra 13y ago
Hopefully this decade we will be reading a news story about polio's global eradication.
baldfat 13y ago
My Great Aunt Lillian who was crippled by polio when she was a child must have a smile on her face in heaven!
DjangoReinhardt 13y ago
Sorry for hijacking this comment thread but I'd like to share a few of my personal experiences in this process. --------------- As a high-school student, I remember my entire school participated in the early years of this drive. I remember students being assigned specific areas of my town - groups of three to five, assigned an area consisting of a few blocks of multi-storeyed apartments. Each group was asked to canvass and get names of kids under five years of age in every house in their assigned area. If you were wondering why any of us would bother to put in an honest shift, the collection of said kids' names was 'gamified' to some extent. Moreover, for us kids, it was simply time away from school, i.e. no lessons, no teachers, just us friends going from door-to-door. Schools would be given points based on the accuracy of data. (I am still not sure how they decided this but that's what we were told anyway. It sure helped to keep the lazy miscreants among us on the straight and narrow.) The data collected by the students would then be handed over to the authorities in charge of the vaccination process, who would then draw up a list of vaccination centers. One of the more interesting things was broadcasting a single, 'target' date every year for mass vaccinations. The government would broadcast this date (typically the second or third Sunday of January) over various media and also conduct last-mile publicity campaigns with a loudspeaker blaring reminders in every area as the 'target' date came closer. Bear in mind, these vaccines were usually available at government-run clinics and hospitals on any given day of the year but setting a target date ensured that people allocated time out of their schedules. Furthermore, since the target date was always a Sunday, almost everyone could be convinced to make an appearance. That being said, there was an additional arrangement to ensure that those who didn't/couldn't make it to a center on a target date still wouldn't miss out on that all-important dose of vaccine. As for us students, our contribution to the process did not stop with the collection of data. Since our school was a center for mass-vaccinations, we were expected to sit at the vaccination booths and cross-check the arriving vaccinees (is that a word? Never mind, it is now...) against the lists we created and ensure that every kid on that list got vaccinated. Think elections, but for vaccination. Furthermore, we were made to go to their houses with volunteers carrying medicines and ensure that kids who couldn't/hadn't made an appearance yet didn't miss out on the vaccine. I can't remember if any of these efforts earned us extra points on our annual grades but hey, we were happy enough to get 'school-sanctioned loitering time' on a school-day! <TL;DR> As a school student, my school ensured that I played a small part in the early days of this campaign. While most of us did it for shits and giggles, it is only now that we realize that we played a small part in the process and can feel proud of putting in an honest shift all those years ago. Credit must go to the people who designed and executed this campaign ceaselessly over the last twenty years. Their efforts have ensured that no child was, indeed, left behind when it came to administering the all-important drops of the polio vaccine.

This is bigger news than most news stories you'll read this year, or this decade for that matter.

by pg 13y ago

This is bigger news than most news stories you'll read this year, or this decade for that matter.

Yes, we need to share and celebrate this kind of news a lot more. Link to the UNICEF site for those who can't read the WSJ article - http://www.unicef.org/india/health_3729.htm http://www.unicef.org/india/health_3729.htm

theGimp 13y ago
This should work if you want to look at the WSJ article -- they let you through their paywall if your referer is Google https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CC4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702303848104579312453860810752.html&ei=OxjTUonkAva2sAT18IGYDQ&usg=AFQjCNHDx6PsLz2H9Vpqj7sA5qa06LPX-Q&sig2=RcpJawCSZwxXm8ajAgvYaQ&bvm=bv.59026428,d.cWc https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&c...

linux_devil 13y ago

Hats off to Polio Vaccination campaign which takes place here in India . They really did a hard work . Broadcasting services spreading message related to vaccination and "door -to-door" free service of vaccination made it all possible with the help of NGO's.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

monsterix 13y ago

Here's the man credited to have started the polio eradication program in 1994. https://twitter.com/drharshvardhan https://twitter.com/drharshvardhan Dr. Harsh Vardhan has keenly taken it to its fruitful conclusion as well. The initiative to check polio started way back in 1978, with permanently disabled population still available across 5 alive generations. This number is likely to shrink rapidly in the next two decades, provided the polio vaccination program is kept abreast with advancing deadliness of poliovirus [1] and state's ability to maintain free vaccination. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poliovirus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poliovirus [Edited: Span of generations across which polio afflicted patients could be found is 5 and not 3 as per my original comment.]

rikacomet 13y ago
Have you done the research first, before politicizing the issue!? Dr.Harsh Vardhan, was a doctor like any other, in Delhi, one of the first three states in India to start the Polio program, meaning it was not his initiative, instead it was his job to be part of it. What really happened is explained carefully here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2696658/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2696658/
- mikeash 13y ago
  I can't find any trace of politics in the comment you're replying to. Has it been edited?
  - ForHackernews 13y ago
    Maybe Dr. Vardhan is himself politically controversial for some reason? Or maybe it's considered "political" to give credit to one single doctor, when there were others spearheading the initiative as well?
  - kamaal 13y ago
    I think he means to say, Dr Harsh Vardhan is a leader of a major political party. Polio eradication in India was made possible by so many people one can't really thank them all by name. There are so many volunteers, who have worked on weekends going door to door to educate the parents and deliver the vaccination and they have done it over the years. There are doctors, nurses, government workers, even Bollywood actors who've done ads for free to spread awareness. So you can't really thank one person, one government or one organization. This was a national movement which succeeded.
  - rikacomet 13y ago
    Here's the man credited to have started the polio eradication program in 1994. the use of word "started" and the structure "the man" seems invisible to you? This is a prime example of Pushy Politics, which has been not just used, but over abused by fanatics. Distorting History, and if so much as someone (like me here) points it out... "a man can't make a mistake?" attitude then, makes these people feel invincible. Thus...I must quote Plato here: You can forgive a child for staying in darkness, but the real tragedy of life is when men choose to stay away from light.

avighnay 13y ago

In the last mile, the effort is very impressive and laudable. Agents/Volunteers make a door to door visit or there is an announcement via public address systems about the visit in that area. The vaccine is oral drops and is very easy to administer for the volunteers who can be late teens too sometimes. The vaccine is totally free and hence reaches even the poorest. It usually happens in the Jan-Feb time and is combined with TV ads with prominent celebrities endorsing the program, though I don't remember seeing the ads any more. Management of such programs over the populace of India by itself is worthy of praise. A similar process in India which is under rated is the election process. It is a worthy case study in management for any B school.

denzil_correa 13y ago

The reason would be that IF India eradicates itself of polio, we are a step closer (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigera etc.) to see ONLY the second disease (after smallpox) to be eradicated from the face of the earth.

pdw 13y ago
It would be third, the eradication of rinderpest was confirmed a couple of years ago.

aestra 13y ago

Hopefully this decade we will be reading a news story about polio's global eradication.

baldfat 13y ago

My Great Aunt Lillian who was crippled by polio when she was a child must have a smile on her face in heaven!

DjangoReinhardt 13y ago

Sorry for hijacking this comment thread but I'd like to share a few of my personal experiences in this process. --------------- As a high-school student, I remember my entire school participated in the early years of this drive. I remember students being assigned specific areas of my town - groups of three to five, assigned an area consisting of a few blocks of multi-storeyed apartments. Each group was asked to canvass and get names of kids under five years of age in every house in their assigned area. If you were wondering why any of us would bother to put in an honest shift, the collection of said kids' names was 'gamified' to some extent. Moreover, for us kids, it was simply time away from school, i.e. no lessons, no teachers, just us friends going from door-to-door. Schools would be given points based on the accuracy of data. (I am still not sure how they decided this but that's what we were told anyway. It sure helped to keep the lazy miscreants among us on the straight and narrow.) The data collected by the students would then be handed over to the authorities in charge of the vaccination process, who would then draw up a list of vaccination centers. One of the more interesting things was broadcasting a single, 'target' date every year for mass vaccinations. The government would broadcast this date (typically the second or third Sunday of January) over various media and also conduct last-mile publicity campaigns with a loudspeaker blaring reminders in every area as the 'target' date came closer. Bear in mind, these vaccines were usually available at government-run clinics and hospitals on any given day of the year but setting a target date ensured that people allocated time out of their schedules. Furthermore, since the target date was always a Sunday, almost everyone could be convinced to make an appearance. That being said, there was an additional arrangement to ensure that those who didn't/couldn't make it to a center on a target date still wouldn't miss out on that all-important dose of vaccine. As for us students, our contribution to the process did not stop with the collection of data. Since our school was a center for mass-vaccinations, we were expected to sit at the vaccination booths and cross-check the arriving vaccinees (is that a word? Never mind, it is now...) against the lists we created and ensure that every kid on that list got vaccinated. Think elections, but for vaccination. Furthermore, we were made to go to their houses with volunteers carrying medicines and ensure that kids who couldn't/hadn't made an appearance yet didn't miss out on the vaccine. I can't remember if any of these efforts earned us extra points on our annual grades but hey, we were happy enough to get 'school-sanctioned loitering time' on a school-day! <TL;DR> As a school student, my school ensured that I played a small part in the early days of this campaign. While most of us did it for shits and giggles, it is only now that we realize that we played a small part in the process and can feel proud of putting in an honest shift all those years ago. Credit must go to the people who designed and executed this campaign ceaselessly over the last twenty years. Their efforts have ensured that no child was, indeed, left behind when it came to administering the all-important drops of the polio vaccine.