THE NATIONWIDE polio eradication programme has suffered a major jolt, as a fresh case of polio has been reported from Varanasi also.A nine-month-old girl Mehnaz Aafreen has been declared as polio positive. She belongs to a weaver’s family in Rewari Talab area.
“Yes, after stool tests, the nine-month old girl Mehnaz Aafreen has been declared as a polio positive case,” chief medical officer Dr AP Singh told Hindustan Times. He added that both the legs of the victim were paralysed.
He said the stool sample was taken on August 4 and 5. Tests at the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute (Lucknow) and Mumbai confirmed polio.
Dr Singh said Mehnaz’s parents Mohd Sulem and Shahnaz Bano had refused to let the girl be administered the pulse polio vaccine several times in the past.
The CMO said there were 3,000 resistant families across Varanasi district. They refused to get their wards immunised. He added that it was the first time in around three years that a fresh case of polio had been reported in Varanasi.
Dr AP Singh said a special two-day pulse polio immunisation drive would be launched in the Rewari Talab area on Monday and Tuesday to ensure that not a single child below the age of five was left un-immunized.
{{/usCountry}}Dr AP Singh said a special two-day pulse polio immunisation drive would be launched in the Rewari Talab area on Monday and Tuesday to ensure that not a single child below the age of five was left un-immunized.
{{/usCountry}}“We request all the parents to get their wards immunised,” he said and did not rule out the occurrence of more polio cases in the district in future as the virus had infiltrated the district.
He said last year 29 cases of polio were reported in the entire Uttar Pradesh. This year, the number of polio cases had already reached 229 in UP, he added.
World Health Organisation surveillance medical officer (Polio) Dr AK Pandey also confirmed that the girl Mehnaz Aafreen was a polio positive case.
Dr Pandey said that next phase of the polio immunization campaign would be launched on September 10. Meanwhile, taking serious note of the fresh polio case, district magistrate Rajiv Agarwal suspended the entire pulse polio immunisation team, including nodal officer Dr AK Rai, of the Rewari Talab area.