Polio vaccination for Pakistan travellers to be implemented from 14 February

India on 3 January 2014 announced a new rule to vaccinate against polio to the travellers from Pakistan would be implemented from 14 February 2014. India under the new rule has made it mandatory for all persons including children travelling to India from Pakistan to furnish a proof of vaccination against polio from 30 January 2014.

Sources said that the extension was made so that Pakistani authorities could make required arrangements. As Pakistan is one among the three countries in the world in which the crippling disease is endemic and in 2013 the polio cases in Pakistan touched 85.

The step of polio vaccination has been taken to safeguard the polio-free status attained by India after sustained efforts and investment. The measure is applicable to very traveler from countries, where polio is endemic or where cases of polio have been reported. The measure will also be applied on the Indians, who will travel from countries where polio is endemic.

It’s mandatory for travellers to take the oral polio vaccination at least six weeks before their departure from any country for India but not more than a year before the trip.

Pakistani Taliban has banned polio vaccination in parts of the tribal belt and the vaccination teams are frequently attacked by the militants accusing them as spies of the western nations and part of a plot to sterlise Muslims.

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