Polio Continues to Haunt Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh is far from declaring itself a polio-free state as another detection has come up - the second in four months.

And this despite the fact that the victim was administered polio drops during five such campaigns conducted in the past.

"A fresh polio case has come to light in Bhind district where the pulse polio campaign was undertaken on Sep 10 along with 15 other districts in the state and 300,000 children were given the drops," an official said.

"While the presence of polio virus in 14-month-old Shivani has been confirmed by a Mumbai-based research institute Tuesday, in the earlier case a seven-month-old boy Kapil of Chhatarpur was found afflicted with the disease in June this year," the official added.

The victim Shivani is one of the twins, born in July 2005.

After Kapil was found afflicted, a special campaign was also launched in Chhatarpur and six other districts in the state's Bundelkhand region on June 25 and Aug 8.

Moreover, a labourer's son was detected with polio despite being administered polio drops on Jan 28 and April 9 this year. Polio surfaced in his leg after 10 days on April 19.

As per official records, the last polio case was detected on November 2003. Eleven polio cases were detected in 2003 while 21 cases came to light in 2002. However, no case was registered in 2001.

"This is a national issue. It needs intense investigation as to why children despite being administered polio drops of WHO standards have been getting the disease," said state Health Minister Ajay Vishnoi.

He suspected that the virus rampant in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh might have affected Shivani.

Source-IANS
SRM