A fresh polio case in Chhatarpur district has been confirmed, ending the State’s two-year polio-free run. The National Polio Surveillance Project (NPSP) confirmed on Thursday polio virus in a seven-month-old child from Pai village of Rajnagar block in Chhatarpur, bordering Hamirpur district of UP.
A senior NPSP official confirmed it to the Hindustan Times that MP’s chances of becoming a polio-free state have got a blow. MP is the third state, besides Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, to report a confirmed polio case in 2006. Any state or country, to be declared polio-free, has to have a record of no case in three consecutive years.
The new case is the 34th one to be reported in the country this year, the NPSP official said. Earlier 21 cases have been reported in UP and 12 in Bihar.
No cases of polio had been reported in the State during 2004 and 2005. However, the latest case has put the State health department back to square one as far as total eradication of polio is concerned.
State health minister Ajay Vishnoi or principal secretary M M Upadhyay could not be contacted for their comments. State immunisation officer and joint director K L Sahu said that though he would not be able to confirm the case as he was away from Bhopal.
{{/usCountry}}State health minister Ajay Vishnoi or principal secretary M M Upadhyay could not be contacted for their comments. State immunisation officer and joint director K L Sahu said that though he would not be able to confirm the case as he was away from Bhopal.
{{/usCountry}}The fresh case, despite multiple and special pulse-polio immunization drives, should be a shock to the state health department. The department has been boasting of polio-free status of last year and was expecting the state to go officially polio-free by the end of 2006.
Before this new case, the last one was reported in State on November 8, 2003. In 2002, the State reported 21 cases of which four were in Chhatarpur. In 2003, 11 cases were reported in the State, with no cases from Chhatarpur. Madhya Pradesh was polio-free in 2001.
In the country, 225 cases were reported in 2003, 134 in 2004 and 66 in 2005. In 2006, 34 cases, including the latest in MP, have been reported from 16 districts.
The NPSP official, who confirmed the case, expressed the confidence that the state would be able to wipe out the virus. For this purpose, he said, a sub-national immunization day (SNID) would be conducted in seven districts surrounding Chhatarpur in MP and five districts of UP on June 25.