By IANS,
Kolkata : Lauding Rotary India’s efforts in attempting to eradicate polio, Rotary International president Sakuji Tanaka Tuesday said specialised eye care is the need of the hour for India.
“There are a lot of issues related to ophthalmology that are emerging and need to be looked at. Specialised eye care is the need of the hour. There are huge incidences of cardiac diseases too in the country,” Tanaka said at a media conference here.
Tanaka, who heads an organisation spread over 215 countries with a global membership of 1.2 million, said India’s contribution to control the polio menace is “a great achievement”.
“It is a great achievement by Indian Rotarians. We don’t know when polio will be eradicated completely, but there has been a significant improvement in the situation. It is a great effort that India has not seen any polio cases in the last two years,” he said.
Highlighting his theme for Rotary year 2012-2013 ‘Peace through Service’, Tanaka said there should be a focused effort to eradicate polio.
The last polio case was seen in West Bengal January 13, 2011. If there are no reports of the disease in the next three years (till January 2014), then India will be declared polio free.