After a gap of three years, Himachal Pradesh has been re-infected with polio virus as a two-and-a-half-year-old male child of a migrant labour from UP, who lives in Solan district of HP, has been tested positive with wild type-3 polio virus. The child, Ajay, has a history of constant travel from one of the high-risk districts of the state — Badaun.

The child reported symptoms of being affected with polio virus in HP during the last week of October. Thereafter, his parents brought him to Badaun in the first week of November where he tested positive for the virus. Experts fear the child might have caught the virus during his visit to Badaun in June-July this year.

Moreover, the child was staying in a slum at Nalagarh in Solan district and had never been covered under the National Immunisation Days (NID), which is the only immunisation programme followed in HP. The place where the child is staying is surrounded by a cluster of 11 slums in the industrial area with poor sanitation condition.

“It is still to be found out whether the other children living in the area were also left out during the NIDs,” said Dr G P Dwivedi, WHO representative for National Polio Surveillance Project in HP.

The child has been confirmed for wild polio type-3 virus in the recently released report of fresh cases by National Polio Surveillance and has been registered as the only polio case of the year in HP.

Deepak Sanan, Principal Secretary, Health, Himachal Pradesh government, confirmed the case. The officials of the health department in HP informed that before this recent visit to Badaun, the family had visited Badaun in June-July this year. “As he fell ill in the last week of October, his parents took him to Badaun, where he was confirmed for type-3 polio virus,” said Saran.

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