India has made oral polio vaccination immunization mandatory for travellers coming from seven polio affected countries with a view to prevent polio virus from entering the country. These countries are Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Syria, Kenya, Somalia, Nigeria and Pakistan. An official release said, all travelers coming from these countries to India would need to take the Oral Polio Vaccine six weeks before departure from their country. It said, polio vaccine will also be administered to all travelers from India to these polio-affected countries as the new polio vaccination regime has already come into effect from 1st of this month.

The preventive measure has been initiated as per the recommendations of the national and international expert bodies and the guidelines of the World Health Organization. India has not reported any case of polio for over 3 years. The country is also taking several other measures to mitigate the risk of poliovirus importation. Continuous polio immunization posts have been set up along the international borders with Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Bhutan.