No new case of polio in over 7 weeks

The WHO officials say the break is also important at a time when UP and Bihar have been re-infecting each other even as the circulation of the virus stopped in some parts of the sensitive regions. Both the endemic states along with other parts of the country have been able to control the virus for over a month.

Significantly,UP hasn’t reported any Type I case for the past five months.

Hamid Jafari,project manager,WHO National Polio Surveillance Project,India,said,“There has been no polio virus case in the country for almost seven weeks. What is significant is that it is for the first time that there has been no case of Type 1 polio in both UP and Bihar for such a long time. In the past,the two endemic states have stopped Type 1 separately but then re-infected each other.”

Dr SK Pathyarch,regional in-charge of National Polio Surveillance Project,a collaboration of Government of India and WHO,said,“While six weeks break in polio virus circulation across the country is certainly a good news,there is another addition to it that UP,which has been the epicentre for wild type polio virus 1,has not reported it for the past five months. UP has so far reported merely 9 cases of WPV-3,which can be easily controlled.”

Some of the health experts also see this as an impact of newly introduced Bivalent polio vaccine.

“Bivalent,which has two type of existing viruses,could be one of the reasons behind this stop in the virus spread but it has been just three months since it has been introduced. We would like to wait and watch for a few more months,” said Ajay Saxena,convenor,of Rotary’s polio plus programme.

In UP,the new vaccine was introduced in 23 districts of western Uttar Pradesh in February and March. Happy with its response,the government now plans to introduce the vaccine in eastern and central UP during the May 23 round of pulse polio immunisation programme.