The resurfacing of the Polio 1 virus , which was largely believed to be on the verge of eradication in the country, in UP has set off alarm bells among health experts across the country. The virus re-entered the state through Bihar and has now established a firm hold in Western UP despite intensive immunisation of children with a new monovalent Oral Polio Vaccine. In an attempt to arrest the spread of the virus, experts have now decided to go in for an increase in the frequency of the vaccination rounds.

The earlier gap of at least 4 to 6 weeks between vaccines has been brought down to three weeks in an attempt to boost immunisation. The next anti-Polio vaccination drive is slated for November 16 for the entire state, merely three weeks after the recently concluded mop-up round on October 24 in 18 affected districts. Sources said that experts are planning to go in for another state-wide vaccination drive in mid-December and a mop-up round in between if required.

As per the report of the Polio Surveillance Project, an initiative of WHO, UNICEF, Rotary as well as Government of India, Uttar Pradesh has reported 11 fresh polio cases in the last week.

While seven of these cases are of type 3 polio virus, remaining are of type 1 and all the type 1 cases were from western UP, the traditional epicentre of the virus. So far this year, a total of 254 polio cases have been reported in the state, of which 51 are of the wild P1 polio virus and the rest are of type 3. Interestingly, even though the type 1 polio virus in Uttar Pradesh has came from Bihar, even Bihar has reported just two type 1 polio cases this year.