NEW DELHI, June 19 (Reuters) - India has reached a crucial stage in its fight to eradicate polio and how the country goes about tackling the virus is central to the success of the global battle against the crippling disease, a top WHO official said.

India has recorded the second highest number of polio cases in the world this year, with 268 cases so far, against 272 in Nigeria, according to the latest World Health Organization data.

But most cases are of the less virulent Type 3 strain.

There have been just five cases of the more deadly Type 1 polio this year, against 83 reported last year, and India and the WHO aim to eradicate Type 1 from the country by year end.

"The tools and strategies applied in the most challenging epidemiological region like India will show the world that if India can do it, why can't others achieve the same result?" Hamid Jafari, head of WHO's polio surveillance project told Reuters.

Polio, which is incurable, leads to paralysis, and death occurs in about 5-10 percent of patients.

Intense surveillance, more use of a stronger polio vaccine and better mopping up operations were needed, Jafari said.

"It is easier to fish when you have lot of fish in the pond but as the number of fish is going down, our surveillance system has to be extremely quick and very prompt to detect a polio case," Jafari said in an interview on Thursday.

The virus is transmitted through the faecal-oral route in unhygienic conditions if food is eaten with unwashed hands.

Ever since the WHO stepped up its global drive against polio eradication in the late 1980s, cases have dropped from 350,000 in more than 125 endemic countries in 1951 to 1,313 last year. (Reporting by Bappa Majumdar; Editing by Simon Denyer and Sanjeev Miglani)

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