Doctors are investigating a suspected case of polio in a six-year-old in Balrampur district of Uttar Pradesh. A top official in the Union Health Ministry said on Friday that it was likely a case of meningitis that sometimes mimicked symptoms of polio.
A World Health Organisation team is investigating the matter and will likely submit a report within three weeks.
“This is not polio,” C.K. Mishra, a senior official in the Union Health Ministry, said: “The [state] doctors tell us that it could be a case of acute flaccid paralysis that comes with meningitis. But we’re still investigating to be absolutely sure and should know for sure in two and a half weeks.”
The suspected case of polio comes on the back of a wild polio-virus strain being found in a drain in Hyderabad earlier this week. Minister of State for Health S.P. Yadav told PTI that the “matter has been taken seriously.”
Reacting to reports from the virus in Telangana, the Union Health Ministry had said that India remained polio-free amidst concerns over a wild polio virus (P2 strain) being found in a Hyderabad drain. The polio virus (P2 strain) that has been detected in Telangana was from a sewage sample near the Secunderabad railway station. The last case of Wild Polio Virus Type 2 in country was reported 17 years back in 1999.
As a preventive measure the government will launch a special immunisation drive in the high-risk areas of Hyderabad and Rangareddy districts, from June 20, where an estimated 3,00,000 children will be protected against polio using Inactivated Polio Vaccine. The special campaign will ensure all vulnerable children living in high-risk areas are given protection against polio.
Surveillance systemThe last case due to wild poliovirus in India was detected on 13 January 2011 and the country was certified polio-free by the WHO in March 2014. India continues to maintain a highly sensitive surveillance system for polio. All cases of paralysis with sudden onset in children up to 15 years (which is called Acute Flaccid Paralysis or AFP) are picked up by the polio surveillance network.
Each of these cases is followed up and their stool samples tested for polio virus in the WHO accredited laboratories.
In addition, sewage samples are collected from over 30 sites across the country for poliovirus detection at regular intervals. Between Jan 2015 and May 2016, a total of 14 sewage samples collected from different parts of the country tested positive for Vaccine-derived polio virus.
