ALL SORTS of paralysis must not be considered as polio and it was necessary to conduct stool test before declaring a paralysis case as polio, said Chief Medical Officer of Varanasi Dr AP Singh.
Talking to mediapersons, the CMO expressed concern over the misconception about polio vaccination prevailing in the society. Dr Singh said that traumatic uritis and transverse militis etc were among other factors responsible for paralysis.
“If any case of paralysis in a kid below 15 years of age is diagnosed, then the parents should contact the district health administration so that the authorities may ascertain the actual cause of paralysis”, requested Dr Singh.
He said that ‘resistance families’ were a great hurdle in polio eradication drive in Varanasi. He informed that there were 2892 resistance families across the district which were not allowing the health officials to administer polio vaccines to kids below five years of age. He said that out of 2892 resistance families, around 2400 families were in urban areas.
“Out of the total resistance families, 80 per cent are Muslim families while 20 percent are Hindu families’, he said. Dr Singh said that no fresh polio case had been reported in Varanasi since 2003. He said that last year only six polio cases were reported till March in Uttar Pradesh whereas this year as many as 12 polio cases had been reported in UP till the end of March.
{{/usCountry}}“Out of the total resistance families, 80 per cent are Muslim families while 20 percent are Hindu families’, he said. Dr Singh said that no fresh polio case had been reported in Varanasi since 2003. He said that last year only six polio cases were reported till March in Uttar Pradesh whereas this year as many as 12 polio cases had been reported in UP till the end of March.
{{/usCountry}}He said that at present, polio was reported only in UP and Bihar and called upon a cross -section of the society to extend their support to eradicate this dreaded disease from the entire world. He said that there were 3.5 lakh polio cases in the world in 1988 while in 2005 the number of polio victims declined to around 1,900.