India announces decline in polio cases

• Tweet

NEW DELHI, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- India's health minister says cases of polio in the country dropped more than 90 percent this year.

Up to Dec. 3, there were 40 cases of polio compared with 741 in 2009, Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said.

"India has reported [a] more than 90 percent decline in polio cases in 2010 as compared to 2009 and is rapidly moving towards the target of achieving polio eradication in the near future ... . The number of affected districts has declined to 17 so far in 2010 from 56 in 2009 and 90 in 2008," he said.

In a separate matter, Azad said an International Vaccine Center report found that of the 15 countries accounting for 75 percent of pneumonia globally, India has the highest incidence of the disease.