Now All India Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation to treat boy who got polio from vaccine

Four months after the vaccine derived polio virus (VDPV) paralysed one-year-old Arsh Singh, his parents Bina and Tejbahadur are seeing a ray of hope. They will shift him to the All India Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (AIIPMR) at Haji Ali tomorrow.

All the limbs of Arsh were paralysed because of the virus and he was admitted in BJ Wadia Hospital on July 12. After keeping him on the ventilator for a month, Arsh was shifted to the ward.

Tejbahadur said: “There is marked improvement in his condition. But he needs physiotherapy. We will shift him to AIIPMR tomorrow.” 

“We were told that physiotherapy was key to improve his condition. However, he did not get proper physiotherapy at the hospital. Since AIIPMR has the expertise, we hope we will soon see Arsh standing up of his own,” said Tejbahadur. Doctors at Wadia Hospital, however, decided not to comment on it.

To rule out put spread of the VDPV, civic health officials had collected around 41 samples from different age groups and sent them to the National Institute of Virology, Pune. All samples were found negative. Experts are, however, clueless on how Arsh got VDPV. He is the fourth VDPV case in India.