The country on Tuesday announced it would launch a polio vaccination drive in rural and isolated areas.

The government is targeting at least 5.8 million households in the 12-year-old state of Jharkhand, which has the world’s highest number of cases of polio.

India has the highest number (9.6 million) of cases, followed by Pakistan with 6.8 lakh and Nigeria with 4.6 lakh.

The programme is being run by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Ahmedabad and the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in New Delhi.

The announcement came a day after the World Health Organisation (WHO) said India had one of the worst health records among the world nations for polio.

More:India is currently polio-free.