The
National Certification Committee for Polio Eradication (NCCPE)
was established by the Government of India vide order No.
T 13013/1/98 dated 7th August 1998 with its secretariat located
at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi.
The order stated as follows:
“The Government has further decided to set up a National
Certification Committee for Polio Eradication for the purpose
of monitoring the country wide progress of the eradication
activities. This committee will examine and assess the data
on the polio incidence in the country and will make necessary
suggestions and recommendations for improving the systems
of gathering evidence for documentation of work on data collection
and analysis. This committee will also interact with the original
Certification Commission of the South-East Asia Region, WHO.
As and when necessary the committee may undertake field trips
for assessing the situation on the spot. The committee will
also prepare the country report for certification and when
the country becomes fully polio free.”
Role
of NCCPE
The
role of the National Certification Committee for Polio Eradication
(NCCPE) is to collect, review and analyze information to its
satisfaction and prepare a country report for presentation
to the International Commission on Certification of Polio
Eradication. These data must contain convincing evidence of
interruption of poliovirus transmission in the country. When
not convinced, the NCCPE should take the responsibility of
asking the national program to provide convincing data to
the satisfaction of the Committee.
The
Process of Certification of Polio Eradication
The Global Certification Commission (GCC), established
by the Director-General of WHO in 1995, is responsible for
setting the process and criteria for certification and ultimately
deciding whether to certify global polio eradication. This
requires at least 3 years of zero polio cases due to wild
poliovirus in the presence of certification-standard surveillance
in all six WHO regions. The GCC also requires all six regions
to provide data demonstrating full implementation of the pre-
and post-eradication containment activities outlined in the
WHO global action plan for the containment of wild polioviruses
prior to global certification.
In contrast to individual countries being certified free of
smallpox, an entire WHO region must be certified polio-free.
For this to happen, every country and area in a region must
provide evidence consistent with there being no indigenous
wild poliovirus cases for at least 3 years, under conditions
of certification-standard surveillance for the virus. Surveillance
for acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) is the gold standard for
certification, though other surveillance strategies have been
accepted for some countries that have long been polio-free
and have high levels of sanitation and strong health systems.
The capacity of a country to detect and investigate sufficient
AFP cases in the absence of polio demonstrates that the poliovirus
would be found if it were present.
This certification documentation is collected and verified
by national certification committees (NCCs) and provided to
a regional certification commission (RCC), which then decides
on the basis of the data whether the region can be certified.
The
RCCs are independent panels of 8 – 10 internationally
recognized experts in public health, epidemiology, virology
and/or clinical medicine. The finalisation of documentation
is a multi-year, iterative process involving dialogue between
the NCCs and the RCC. The documentation must also illustrate
the capacity to detect, report and respond to “imported”
polio cases.
Once a region is certified polio-free, and before global certification
can be considered, all countries within the region must maintain
certification-standard surveillance and implement post-eradication
containment measures.
NCCPE
Members, India
Shri P I Uma Shankar, Chairman Ex-Secretary,
Family Welfare
Dr Kalyan Banerjee, MemberEx-Director, National
Institute of Virology
Dr N K Ganguly, MemberDirector General, Indian Council of
Medical Research, New Delhi
Dr (Brig) S L Chadha, MemberConsultant, Community
Health (Preventive & Social Medicine)
Dr S Pattanayak, MemberEx-National Malaria
Eradication Program
Dr E G P Haran, MemberConsultant, Polio Eradication,
Bangladesh
Dr Narendra K Arora, Member-CoordinatorAdditional Professor
of Pediatrics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New
Delhi
Meetings
of NCCPE
The
NCCPE members decide the periodicity and the agenda of the
meeting after assessing the polio eradication efforts in the
country. There is no fixed schedule for holding these meetings.
To date ten NCCPE meetings have been organized, and are usually
attended by the Secretary (Family Welfare), other Program
Managers from the Government of India, and key stakeholders
from NPSP, UNICEF, WHO and academia. Following are the details
of the meetings:
Meetings |
Venue |
Date |
First
NCCPE meeting |
All
India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi |
1st
April 1999 |
Second
NCCPE meeting |
All
India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi |
12-13th
July 1999 |
Third
NCCPE meeting |
All
India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi |
14–15th
April 2000 |
Fourth
NCCPE meeting |
All
India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi |
23rd-24th
Feb 2001 |
|
Fifth
NCCPE meeting |
All
India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi |
2nd-4th
Nov 2001 |
Sixth
NCCPE meeting |
All
India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi |
10–12th
Jan 2002 |
Seventh
NCCPE meeting |
All
India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi |
4-9th
March 2002 |
|
Eight
NCCPE meeting |
All
India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi |
|
Ninth
NCCPE meeting |
All
India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi |
30th
Apr–1st May 2004 |
|
Tenth
NCCPE meeting |
All
India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi |
4–6th
Dec 2004 |
For
further information, please contact:
Dr. Narendra K Arora
nkmanan@yahoo.com
narendrakumararora@hotmail.com
Contact: 91- 11- 26588775 ; 91- 11- 26589325
