NEW DELHI: Despite rigorous rounds of immunisation, the polio virus just refuses to leave India. Fresh cases detected recently in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa and Delhi have left the health agencies baffled. With the families of the infected claiming they were vaccinated, the whole polio immunisation programme is now in question.
The fresh cases come as an embarrassment for a nation which was just a few days back patted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for its sustained polio immunisation drive. Not only has Delhi reported its first case of the year last month, the virus has also resurfaced in Orissa after a gap of three years.
“The child in Delhi is a case of Wild Polio Virus (WPV) 3,” said a health ministry official. This is Delhi’s first WPV3 cases since 2002. Experts feel the child may have contracted the virus in Uttar Pradesh, where he stayed sometime back.
Even as health ministry officials tried to play it down saying these are wild cases and there is nothing to worry, a fresh round of immunisation has been ordered, besides special supplementary rounds in UP and Bihar.
“We are conducting another round of polio immunisation towards the end of this month and the process will continue till we wipe out the virus,” said a ministry official.
Uttar Pradesh remains the epicentre of the polio trouble with 223 cases till September this year. Bihar (40) has the second-highest number of cases till date of the total 281 reported in the country.
Among other states, Andhra has reported 5 cases, Uttarakhand 4, Haryana 3, Maharashtra 2 and one each in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Orissa and Delhi. India has the highest number of polio cases in the world followed by Nigeria (201).
However, with the polio figures substantially going down from 676 cases in 2006, health ministry officials say the drive is showing results and the virus is primarily restricted to a few districts in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
