NEW DELHI: India has eliminated maternal and neonatal tetanus . It has been reduced to less than one case per 1000 live births across the country, the World Health Organisation ( WHO ) has validated adding India to the list of countries that have successfully battled the disease.

“This is a huge achievement for India which until a few decades ago reported 150,000 to 200,000 neonatal tetanus cases annually,” WHO regional director for South-East Asia Poonam Khetrapal Singh said.

Highlighting the achievement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “India has eliminated maternal and neonatal tetanus. The validation for this has happened much before the global target date of December 2015. This gives us the confidence to achieve other targets well before the target date.”

Maternal and neonatal tetanus have been among the most common lethal consequences of unclean deliveries and umbilical cord care practices. When tetanus develops, mortality rates are extremely high, especially when appropriate medical care is not available. In many developing countries, deliveries take place in unhygienic circumstances, putting mothers and their newborns at risk for a variety of life-threatening infections.

Experts said India’s national immunization programme helped ensure that children and pregnant women are reached with vaccines.

“Maternal and neonatal tetanus elimination demonstrates India’s strong commitment and leadership that helped improve access to immunization, antenatal care services and skilled birth attendance in the most vulnerable populations – the poor, the remote and isolated communities where hygienic obstetric, postnatal practices and other health services were suboptimal or not accessible,” Khetrapal said. She said the government’s innovative approach of utilizing elements of existing and new programmes provided the synergistic lift-off to make maternal and neonatal tetanus elimination a reality.

The government also promoted institutional deliveries in India through its flagship social sector scheme National Rural Health Mission, which is mainly focused on the poor.

WHO, however, pointed that efforts cannot stop here. “Unlike smallpox and polio, tetanus cannot be eradicated as tetanus spores remain stubbornly present in the environment worldwide. As the risk of tetanus persists, we need to continue our efforts to ensure that MNTE is maintained - women and children are immunized and clean deliveries and proper cord care activities get a further boost,” Khetrapal said.

With India’s achievement, almost the entire South East Asian region, barring a few districts in Indonesia, has eliminated maternal and neonatal tetanus.