India had been declared polio-free in 2014 by World Health Organization (WHO).
India had been declared polio-free in 2014 by World Health Organization (WHO).
On Monday, sample of a 6-year-old sent to the Indian Institute of Serology (IIS) in Kolkata after being suspected of being polio virus by a coordinator of The World Health Organisation (WHO). India had been declared polio-free in 2014 by the WHO, following a sustained aggressive programme of administering polio vaccine to new borns across the country by the central government.
“This is the first suspected case of polio from Manoharpur-Anandpur block in West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand. We have sent the stool sample of the 6-year-old boy to IIS-Kolkata for testing. The report will come in 15 days from IIS which will conclusively tell us if this is the first confirmed case of polio. If the presence of polio virus is not delected, we will further try to diagnose the reasons for the boy’s problems,” said Dr Suman, WHO coordinator for Chaibasa.
‘They would have to go for differential diagnosis to find out the exact reason for the weak and flabby muscles of the boy- acute flaccid paralysis (AFP)- if polio virus is not found in the testing’, she added.
“Apart from polio, guillain barre syndrome (GBS), transverse myelitis, traumatic neuritis, transient paralysis, facial palsy and paresis too may lead to AFP. There is no reason to panic as of now because samples of 64 suspected cases of polio were sent to IIS from Chaibasa during the past three years and none have tested positive so far,” said, Dr Suman.
O P Gupta, district civil surgeon said that the administration will wait for the lab examination report of the minor’s faeces before making any confirmation. The six year old boy, Vishnu Singh, who developed symptoms of polio, is currently undergoing treatment for cerebral malaria at the Indira Gandhi Hospital in Rourkela, Odisha. Officials from the regional office of the World Health Organisation (WHO) were closely following the case, Gupta added.
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