This isn’t strictly a new story but isn’t it a good one. India has now been confirmed by the UN World Health Organisation as being polio free on the basis of having no new cases for three full years. Could anyone really have imagined that as a possibility 10 years ago? Yes I can hear people saying India worked hard to reach this point, but India has worked hard at a long list of self improvement projects with limited success. In a country of 1 billion people, dogged by poverty, poor sanitation, limited infrastructure and inadequate health services it would not be the place you might associate with such a fantastic achievement. Certainly there has been plenty of help and the world has been watching and in a real sense India has produced an outcome completely against the tide of expectation.

Stand back and put your hands together for this fantastic achievement.