Microsoft founder Bill Gates listed Dr. Mathew Varghese as one of five real-world heroes on his blog, Gates Notes. Dr. Varghese is an orthopedic surgeon at St. Stephen's Hospital in Delhi, India, where he runs India's only polio ward.
Here are three things you need to know:
1. In 2011, polio was eliminated in India. Thousands remain immobilized, however, as a result of having had the disease.
2. The polio ward at St. Stephen's, one of Delhi's oldest hospitals, was created in 1987 with eight beds. In the early 1990s, polio was hyper-endemic in India with 200,000 to 400,000 cases reported annually; during this time, the ward remained mostly full.
3. At one point, 600-plus patients underwent reconstructive surgeries a year at St. Stephen's Hospital to correct malformations caused by polio. According to Dr. Varghese, that number is now fewer than 200 patients.
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