pune india has made oral polio vaccine opv mandatory for all travellers across all age groups visiting polioendemic countries such as ethiopia afghanistan syria kenya somalia nigeria and pakistan the new regulation which came into effect from march 1 is aimed at preventing reentry of polio virus from these countries to enforce the new vaccination regime the state health department has set up designated vaccination centres for travellers at its 33 civil hospitals and 16 staterun medical colleges attached hospitals besides 26 municipal corporations in maharashtra have also been instructed to set up such vaccination centres for travellers to ensure easy facilitation of opv in pune city the pune municipal corporation pmc has started a designated opv centre at its narayan peth vaccination centre polio vaccine will be administered to all travellers from maharashtra travelling to these polioaffected countries at these designated opv centres the new polio vaccination regime has come into effect from march 1 said state immunisation officer r m kumbhar s t pardeshi medical officer of health moh pmc said we have already made a vaccination centre operational at our narayan peth centre milind khedkar pmcs designated medical officer of overseeing the work at narayan peth vaccination centre said that more than 50 travellers approached the centre for vaccination ever since it became operational from march 1 every day around 7 to 8 people travelling to the polio endemic countries approach the centre for opv khedkar said the union government has declared that any case of poliovirus would be treated as an emergency and highquality surveillance has been in place to detect any untoward importation of the poliovirus into india the emergency preparedness and response capacity is being reviewed on a continuous basis and nearly 200 rapid response team members have been trained to roll out emergency response to polio the new polio vaccination regime has come since india is awaiting poliofree certification from the world health organization who said another state health official for queries on opv vaccination pmcs designated medical officer milind khedkar can be contacted on 9689931102 people can also write in to pmcimmunisationgmailcomwhy the new vaccination regime india has not reported any case of polio for over 3 years however the risk of polio persists as afghanistan pakistan and nigeria continue to be polioendemic reinfecting six countries in 2013 and causing major polio outbreaks in the horn of africa region and the middle east in view of the persisting threat of polio virus importation the independent monitoring board of the global polio eradication initiative recommended in its october 2013 report that the international health regulations ihr should be used to ensure all people travelling from polioendemic country have vaccination prior to travel and this should be extended to any persistently affected country as per the who guidelines until polio is eradicated globally the risk of introduction of poliovirus in poliofree areas through travellers remains hence all travellers to and from poliovirusinfected areas are advised to be adequately vaccinated