As India entered the second phase of extended lockdown, the battle against Covid-19 becomes more targeted. India in its commitment towards winning the Covid-19 battle join hands with the WHO polio surveillance team and its field staff which has been instrumental in winning the war against Polio and achieving a 100% Polio free Nation.
The initiative was taken by DR. Harshwardhan, Health Minister in association with Dr. Poonam Khetarpal Singh, Regional Director WHOSEARO, to tap into the best practices and key resources, with a systematic engagement of WHO’s National Polio Surveillance Network and 1000’s of field staff for Covid-19 response.
The meeting was joined by Ashwini Choubey Mos, health ministry, Mr Henk Bekedam, WHO representative to India over 1000’s of WHO field surveillance staff and state officials to discuss the containment measures for Covid-19 response and leverage the Integrated Health programme Platform and Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme Via Video conference.
This won’t be the first time that the Govt of India and Who will be working closely on War scale to eliminate Covid-19 . It was their competent , dedicated teamwork that India got rid of Polio. Dr Harshwardhan recalled his experience working with the WHO NPSP in past and reminded them of their potential and abilities which will complement in strengthening the Covid-19 response calling them the “Surveillance Corona Warriors”.
The “National Polio Surveillance Project” (WHO NPSP) played a crucial role in strengthening surveillance for polio that generated useful and accurate data to guide policies, strategies and interventions until Polio was completely eradicated from the country said Dr. Poonam Khetarpal Singh.
This collaboration of Health Ministry and WHO NPSP team becomes crucial at this stage of Covid-19 response as the surveillance is going to play a vital role in making future strategies, data management monitoring and supervision and responding to local conditions, past experiences of field officers are some of the Strength of NPSP which will complement the efforts of NCDC, IDSP and ICMR in Covid -19 response. With its immense experience and expertise in the field NPSP team will support and share information and techniques helping states and districts fine tune their action plan depending on r the extent of transmission of the disease and local capacities. This again becomes crucial with the zone wise classifications of the Covid -19 affected districts by the Union Health Ministry.
During his tenure as Health Minister of Delhi in 1994 , Dr Harshwardhan had introduced several of the Key Polio elimination initiatives which were later scaled up across the country and also adopted by other countries leading to complete eradication of Polio from India in 2014. India’s WHO National Polio Surveillance Project is now renamed as National Public Health Surveillance Project post polio eradication and has been a constant support during health emergencies.
