2 in 7 months,polio returns to Malegaon

Dr Bharat Wagh,medical officer in the health department of the Malegaon Municipal Corporation,said 17 stool samples from children below 15 years were sent to the Haffkine Institute as part of the acute flaccid paralysis surveillance. Shaikh’s case was confirmed.

After the first case,five rounds of vaccination were conducted in Malegaon,including the national immunisation rounds. “We found that Akhil had not received routine immunisation… after a great deal of persuasion,the family allowed us to administer the oral polio vaccine thrice,which was clearly not sufficient to prevent polio,” says Wagh. In the round on February 7,health officers registered the refusal of 566 families belonging to the minority community and 331 families refused the vaccine on March 21,said Wagh. On July 18,Muslim families that refused the vaccine stood at 334. The first case in Malegaon had also shown a genetic link to Murshidabad,Uttar Pradesh,said Wagh. State surveillance officer Dr Kishore Chavan and immunisation officer Dr V M Kulkarni,now in Malegaon,pointed out that refusal to vaccination stemmed from traditional beliefs,besides the myth that it may lead to impotency. Malegaon health officials conducted awareness drives,which included meetings in Muslim seminaries and talking to Muslim clerics. A mop-up round has been planned before August 15,Wagh said.

Factfile
Polio is endemic in only two states,Uttar Pradesh and Bihar

The highest degree of success in the polio drives has been against type 1,the most dangerous

In 2010,till June 14,India reported 25 polio cases compared to 163 in the corresponding period in 2009