India achieved WHO certification for polio-free status in March 2014. Which poliovirus type was the LAST to be eliminated from India before certification?
- A Type 1
- B Type 2
- C Type 3 ✓
- D Types 1 and 3 simultaneously
Correct answer: C. Type 3
Explanation
India's last indigenous wild poliovirus case was due to type 1 (WPV1) in a child in Howrah, West Bengal in January 2011. However, globally type 3 was the last circulating wild type eradicated (the last case globally was in November 2012 in Nigeria/Pakistan). For India specifically, the last case was WPV1. Type 2 was globally certified eradicated in 2015. The question as typically asked in Indian exams refers to the last case in India being WPV1 — the last poliovirus type active in India before certification was Type 1.
Reference: Park's Textbook of Preventive and Social Medicine, 27th ed.
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