India: 2010 Polio cases

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Source: http://www.ptinews.com/news/504521_Malegaon-child-affected-with-polio-virus-type-1

* Malegaon child affected with polio virus type 1

STAFF WRITER 20:40 HRS IST

Malegaon/Mumbai, Feb 6 (PTI) A one-and-a-half-year old boy has been afflicted with wild polio virus type I (PV 1), which was thought to be eradicated from Maharashtra four years ago, in Jeitunpura in Malegaon district.

Polio virus type I has resurfaced after so many years and was confirmed yesterday, local civic health officer Bharat Wagh told PTI today.

18-month-old Mohammed Kasir Asararar Ahmed was admitted to the civil hospital on January 18 with Acute Flaccid Paralysis and as per polio eradication and surveillance programme and his stool sample was sent to Mumbai for confirmation.

"We received the confirmation note day before yesterday that it was wild PV1 day. After several years, the P-1 strain of polio virus case re-surfaced in Maharashtra and was confirmed by the Indian council of Medical Research laboratory in Mumbai," Wagh said.

"However, the genetic link to the virus is yet to be established.

 

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Re: India: 2010 Polio cases

Source: http://www.ptinews.com/news/505278_Eliminating-polio-from-Bihar--UP-crucial--Azad

* Eliminating polio from Bihar, UP crucial: Azad

STAFF WRITER 14:46 HRS IST

New Delhi, Feb 7 (PTI) Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today said eliminating polio from the affected areas of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar was crucial not only to make the two states free from the crippling disease but also to ensure it does not spread through migratory population.

As he launched a new bivalent vaccine to fight the two prevalent strains of polio, Azad said "isolated cases of polio found in places like Mumbai and Delhi come largely from migratory populations from the two states."

He said a total of 107 blocks in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are still effected by the polio virus despite 15 years of campaign in which all other states and Union Territories have been freed of the disease.

 

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Re: India: 2010 Polio cases

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...away-from-polio-drops/articleshow/5550214.cms

Myths still keep families away from polio drops
Sumitra Deb Roy, TNN, 9 February 2010, 01:51am IST

MUMBAI: Health staff working on the polio-immunisation drive say there is still widespread opposition to administering polio drops among certain
sections in the state.

TOI spoke to several field workers, who said many still felt polio drops were contaminated with animal blood that could render their child impotent or that the drops were imported from the US with a larger conspiracy behind. Before every National Immunisation Day, new misconceptions about the vaccine do the rounds, a field worker said.

The recently detected P1 strain of the polio virus in an 18-month-old boy in Malegaon last week has brought to the fore the underlying defiance prevailing among residents to the vaccine, all because of myths and misunderstandings. As many as 1,000 families in Malegaon refused polio vaccination during the last drive in January. Additional director of state health services Ashok Ladda confirmed the figures but said the situation was worse five years ago.

Despite best of efforts to bust the myths about the oral polio vaccine, touted as the most effective to eradicate the virus, the state has failed to convince many sections of the population. "We should not call it a complete failure as in the last five years, 80%-90% of the resistance has come down," said Ravindra Banpel, WHO regional team leader, National Polio Surveillance Programme.

A bigger challenge, say experts, lies in tackling hidden resistance. During immunisation drives, mothers tend to say their children are away or not keeping well, just to evade health workers. Such families do not say no to vaccination openly, said Banpel. Even in 18-month-old Kafin Afrar Ahmed's case (P1 strain victim), his parents had dodged healthcare workers' effort to vaccinise him, either saying he was away or he was ill.

Sometimes rumours about the vaccine are as far-fetched as Americans have made it to make children impotent. Now, the state has prepared ways to tackle such "beliefs". Volunteers propagated that India got the vaccine manufactured in Indonesia, a Muslim country, so anything "wrong" was ruled out, said Banpel. These simple messages had helped to fight misconceptions to a great extent, he said.

About two years ago, such defiance was also reported in certain areas but now, resistance is almost negligible in Mumbai, the BMC claimed.

 

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Re: India: 2010 Polio cases

Infant from Ratia tested for polio
Sushil Manav
Tribune News Service

Fatehabad, February 12
Another case of ?suspected polio? has been detected in Ratia town in the district. The victim, one-and-a-half-year-old daughter of a staff nurse, developed symptoms of ?left foot drop? six days ago and was brought to the Community Health Centre (CHC).

Earlier, she was treated in Fatehabad and Hisar, but there had been no improvement in her condition, said sources.

The doctors, who term the condition as acute flaccid paralysis (AFP), have taken stool samples of the child. Doctors, according to sources, use the term AFP for any kind of paralysis suffered by children below the age of 14 and samples of the victim?s stool are tested to rule out the possibility of polio.

?We will send the stool samples to the government laboratory for testing on Monday,? said Dr VK Jain, senior medical officer of the CHC. He said the child had regularly taken polio drops and the chances of polio were very sparse. Dr Jain said the WHO office in Hisar had been informed about the case. This is the second such case in Ratia within a span of 10 days.

A two-year-old child had developed symptoms of paralysis 10 days ago and his sample too was sent for testing.
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20100213/haryana.htm#6

 

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Re: India: 2010 Polio cases

Source: http://www.duniyalive.com/?p=106207

602 new Polio cases in Uttar Pradesh

By Agencies
New Delhi: 602 new Polio cases in Uttar Pradesh: This year 16 new cases of patients suffering from polio have been recorded in various parts of the country.


The Health depart of Government of India has stated that Uttar Pradesh has topped the list with 602 cases so far.

If we talk about new cases, Out of these 16 cases, 8 are from Uttar Pradesh, 5 from Bihar, and 1 each from Maharashtra, Haryana and West Bengal as stated in the Lok Sabha by Ghulam Nabi Azad, Union Health Minister.

In 2009, India recorded a total of 741 polio cases. Out of these 602 were from Uttar Pradesh followed and 117 from Bihar.

 

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Re: India: 2010 Polio cases

Source: http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=59072

17:27 IST

Lok Sabha



The number of polio cases reported in the country during the calendar year 2009 and 2010, State/UTwise and Union Territory-wise is given at Annexure.



Convergence of a number of risk factors such as low routine immunization coverage, poor environmental sanitation, higher incidence of acute diarrhorial disease etc favour virus transmission and interfere with effectiveness of oral polio vaccine.



33 out of 35 States / UTs are free from indigenous polio virus circulation. Indigenous transmission of polio is limited to high risk areas of UP and Bihar. Only one genetic cluster is presently in circulation as compared to 9 in 2006. However as long as poliovirus transmission continues in any part of the country, children under five years of age are vulnerable to getting the disease.



The following steps are being undertaken to prevent the recurrence of polio cases in the country :-



? Two national Immunization Days (NIDs) are conducted every year in which 172 million children upto the age of 5 years are vaccinated.

? Sub National Immunization Days (SNIDs) are conducted 5 to 7 times in a year in UP, Bihar, Delhi, Mumbai and other areas to cover high risk / migratory population.

? During the campaigns, children at bus stands, market places, major congregation points, railway stations and moving trains are vaccinated to immunize the population on move.

? New born tracking is done to vaccinate them during the polio campaigns.

? Mop Up rounds are conducted in and around the area where a polio case is detected.

? Special plan has been chalked out to vaccinate children in high risk areas of Kosi Riverine Belt.

? Polio Immunization as carried out during important events such as Chaath, festivals and other gatherings.

? Bivalent Oral Polio Vaccine has been introduced from January 2010 for the high risk areas.



ANNEXURE



State wise / Union Territory-wise Polio cases:

2009-2010 as on 26th February 2010



State/UT's 2009 2010

Uttar Pradesh 602 8

Bihar 117 5

Delhi 4 0

Punjab 4 0

Uttarakhand 4 0

Haryana 4 1

Rajasthan 3 0

Jharkhand 2 0

Himachal Pradesh 1 0

Maharashtra 0 1

West Bengal 0 1

TOTAL 741 16

This information was given by Minister for Health & Family Welfare, Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad in written reply to a question raised in Lok Sabha today.


DS/GK

 

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Re: India: 2010 Polio cases

Source: http://www.eht-forum.org/news.html?fileId=news100409083754&from=home&id=0

Friday 09 April 2010
?Hidden? infections sustain polio in India
Report sends strong signal that vaccination strategies are failing in India, could shift international response

Wild-type poliovirus can be found in the faeces of kids who have received more than 10 doses of the oral vaccine in northern India, say epidemiologists online in the Journal of Infectious Diseases this week. The finding suggests that these kids, who do not fall ill when infected with the virus, may play a part in transmitting the disease to others ? and could explain how polio persists in the region despite high levels of vaccination.

The authors of the research, Nicholas Grassly from Imperial College London, UK, and colleagues from the World Health Organization (WHO), say that transmission of the wild poliovirus among vaccinated kids could hamper herd immunity (the protective effect of vaccination on unvaccinated people). New immunisation strategies may be needed to eliminate the disease from India, they add.

Experts say the research provides ?good? evidence to confirm a phenomenon reported on numerous occasions over the past 25 years, but which has not been widely accepted by the international community.

Only four countries have not yet put an end to the transmission of wild-type polioviruses: India, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria. The persistence of the disease in India poses a unique problem to polio eradication programmes as the virus continues to spread in the country even though vaccination coverage is high. In the three other endemic countries the virus persists largely because pockets of people remain unvaccinated, maintaining the spread of the disease.

An oral vaccine against all three strains of the wild-type poliovirus is used to immunise children in India. Scientists have known for some time that kids vaccinated in this way are not fully protected from polioviruses and can still become infected without falling ill. A field investigation into an outbreak of polio in Oman in the late 1980s suggested these vaccinated yet infected kids may help to spread the virus to others. Numerous reports from India have also documented the phenomenon, but until recently the idea has not been acknowledged by the WHO, according to experts EHTF News has contacted...

 

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Re: India: 2010 Polio cases

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Maharashtra--Polio-returns-as-Muslims-refuse-vaccine/611225

Maharashtra: Polio returns as Muslims refuse vaccine
Anuradha Mascarenha Posted: Monday , Apr 26, 2010 at 0217 hrs Pune:

If Maharashtra had a ‘clean’ report card with no new polio case in 2009, this January saw a 2-and-a-half-year- old being detected with P-1 strain of the virus.

Mohammed Qasim Ahmed, the victim, hails from a family which figures among those who have constantly refused vaccination due to religious beliefs. Dr Bharat Wagh, Medical Officer of Health, Malegaon Municipal Corporation, admitted that several families among Muslims continued to refuse vaccination against polio.

According to Wagh, Mohammed’s family had given the child only two doses of polio during the national immunisation round. “There were 10 rounds in high-risk areas, but the child was not given the dose during those rounds,” said Wagh, adding that exposure to the two rounds of polio meant that the child had developed immunity which led to a mild polio attack with residual paralysis in the leg.

 

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Re: India: 2010 Polio cases

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/No-new-case-of-polio-in-over-7-weeks/615126

No new case of polio in over 7 weeks

Maulshree Seth UP Posted: Wednesday, May 05, 2010 at 2340 hrs Lucknow:

After a major polio outbreak in 2006, it is for the first time that India has been able to stop the spread of polio virus for over seven weeks with not a single wild polio virus (WPV) case being reported from any part of the country till this Friday.

The achievement is significant given that India has been blamed for importing the virus to many countries with the recent addition being Tajikistan.

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.?

 

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Re: India: 2010 Polio cases

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/No-polio-cases-in-UP--Bihar-for-six-months/635252

No polio cases in UP, Bihar for six months

In an encouraging sign in the fight against polio, the endemic states of UP and Bihar have not reported any poliovirus type-1 cases concurrently for more than six months. However, India has been again blamed for exporting the virus to ?polio-free? Tajikistan.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), ?a large type-1 outbreak originally from India spread to Tajikistan in early 2010 where till date it has paralysed 239 children?.

Tajikistan has been polio-free since 1997. ?This highlights the urgency of capitalising on recent gains made in the polio-endemic countries,? WHO said. An international team of experts is in the country since April to look into the situation.

Though the Union Health Ministry says it was aware of the spread of the virus to Tajikistan, it refuses to take the blame. ?Even if Tajikistan was polio-free, the spread of the virus once again in the country shows that children would not have been protected enough,? said a ministry official.

 

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Re: India: 2010 Polio cases

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/2-in-7-months--polio-returns-to-Malegaon/657168/

2 in 7 months, polio returns to Malegaon
Anuradha Mascarenhas Tags : malegaon polio cases, mumbai Posted: Sat Aug 07 2010, 01:46 hrs Pune:


Seven months after a polio case in Malegaon, Nashik district, dented the no-polio image Maharashtra had in 2009, another case has been detected in the same area, bringing to focus the refusal of a section of the Muslims to vaccinate children.

On Thursday, samples collected from two-year-old Akhil Shaikh, son of a powerloom labourer in Malegaon?s Datar Nagar, tested positive. It has been learnt he had not received the vaccine routinely. In January, two-and-a-half-year-old Mohammed Qasim Ahmed was detected with the virus.

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.

 

[Pathfinder]

Re: India: 2010 Polio cases

<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=4 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD class=articleheader>Border meet to fight polio

​

</TD></TR><TR><TD class=articleauthor>OUR CORRESPONDENT </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></B>​

Motihari, Oct. 4: Unicef organised workshop named ?Indo-Nepal Border Meet on Polio Eradication? at a hotel today.​

Representatives of Unicef, WHO and NSPS, along with 40 journalists from both India and Nepal attended the workshop.​

Delegates expressed concern over three polio type 1 cases, which were detected in a village in Dhaka block of East Champaran, last month.​

A source said the disease may have been caused by cross-border transmission of the virus from Nepal to Bihar. About 4 residents of Rauthat in Nepal had had also been detected with the virus.
...​

Editor of Bramhastra, a daily in Nepal, said it was necessary to establish checkpost all along the India-Nepal border. As both the countries were facing a similar threat, it was essential for both to undertake a similar drive to eradicate polio...​

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1101005/jsp/bihar/story_13017489.jsp​

 

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Re: India: 2010 Polio cases

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/in-peak-season-polio-cases-decline-raise-hopes/709039/

In peak season, polio cases decline, raise hopes
Posted: Wed Nov 10 2010, 08:47 hrs Lucknow:

After almost five years, the spread of polio virus during peak season ? August to October ? in the endemic state of Uttar Pradesh has been brought under control.

This year, the state has not reported a single Type-1 polio case, the more virulent type of virus, and the last P-3 case was reported in April. The total number of polio cases reported from the state this year is only 10 as compared to about 500 by this time in 2009...

 

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Re: India: 2010 Polio cases

Source: http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2010/12/10/India-announces-decline-in-polio-cases/UPI-72921292003761/

India announces decline in polio cases
Published: Dec. 10, 2010 at 12:56 PM

NEW DELHI, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- India's health minister says cases of polio in the country dropped more than 90 percent this year.

Up to Dec. 3, there were 40 cases of polio compared with 741 in 2009, Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said...

 

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Re: India: 2010 Polio cases

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...aryana-Punjab-at-risk/articleshow/7203877.cms

Wild polio virus: Haryana, Punjab at risk
Shimona Kanwar, TNN, Jan 2, 2011, 07.32am IST


CHANDIGARH: While the country is preparing for a 100% polio free tag by end of the coming year, Haryana and Punjab have been found to be one of the five states countrywide, which are at the risk of importation of wild polio virus. According to the latest WHO surveillance report it was found that some of the districts in Punjab and Haryana were at high risk from 2005. Punjab contributed eight such cases from 2005 and Haryana was leading with 20 cases followed by Delhi, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra and Punjab.

Deputy project manager, technical for WHO, Dr Sunil Bahl said, "This year after genetic mapping of the polio virus in the Jammu and Kashmir it was found that the virus was imported from Ludhiana, which had a case of polio in 2009. So, we need to contain the importation as this is one of the major challenges to achieve 100% polio free nation status."

He informed that Ludhiana, Patiala and Moga in Punjab are the main districts vulnerable to importation of the polio virus...

 

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Re: India: 2010 Polio cases

Source: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110203/jsp/bengal/story_13529943.jsp

Polio focus on Murshidabad
OUR CORRESPONDENT

Behrampore, Feb. 2: Seven out of the eight polio cases in Bengal last year were from Murshidabad, the district magistrate said today. In 2009, there were no polio cases in the state.

?Of the seven polio victims, three are from Shamshergunj, two from Khargram and one each from Suti and Farakka,? district magistrate Parwez Ahamad Siddiqui said. He said the eighth victim was from Birbhum?s Muraroi...