Indian priests administer polio drops

Hindu priests are blessing children with polio drops instead of traditional holy water, sweets or fruits to help eradicate the crippling disease in an eastern Indian state. Polio can cause permanent paralysis in children and is found in India, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Impoverished Bihar is one of several states where polio cases have been reported, and last year more than 650 cases were reported across the country. According to a senior health professional, involving temple priests is a good idea as people trust and listen to them. Tens of millions of people in Hindu-majority India visit temples and accept holy water, fruits or sweets from priests after prayers. Health officials in Bihar have trained hundreds of priests to give polio drops to immunise children. The state had stepped up the immunisation drive, a part of the national polio eradication programme, after 11 polio cases were reported in children this year. Though parents were surprised when the priest put polio drops into the mouths of several children as god's blessings, they trusted them enough that what a priest did could not harm their child.