A two-year-old child from Meghalaya had tested  positive for Polio(PV). Health Ministry officials clarified that the case is vaccine-derived, not wild poliovirus infection. ( infection caused by the naturally occurring virus)

For immunisation ,in India, oral polio drops (OPD) are used.  OPD uses a weakened form of the the live poliovirus virus to activate an immune response in the body. Though the vaccine is safe but it can on occasion trigger the disease in children who have a weakened immune system.

The World Health Organisation declared India polio-free in 2014. India’s last case of wild poliovirus was detected in West Bengal’s Howrah district in 2011. India continues to be polio-free unless cases of wild poliovirus infection are detected.

In October 2020 World Health Organization (WHO) announced that PV is no longer endemic in Nigeria, leaving the devastating disease endemic in only two countries and bringing the world one major step closer to achieving this goal of ending PV for good.

Today, two countries remain that have never stopped endemic transmission of PV: Pakistan and Afghanistan.

LEARNING FROM HOME/WITHOUT CLASSES/BASICS

With the global initiative of eradication of PV in 1988 following World Health Assembly resolution in 1988, Pulse Polio Immunization programme was launched in India in 1995. Its objective was to achieve hundred per cent coverage under Oral Polio Vaccine. Children in the age group of 0-5 years administered PV drops during National Immunization Day.

POLIO

Poliomyelitis — the medical term for polio — is an acutely infectious and contagious virus which attacks the spinal cord and causes irreversible paralysis in children. Poliovirus is typically spread in the faeces of an infected person. It is picked up through contaminated water or food. Vaccinating people cannot be infected thus breaks the cycle of transmission. It eventually eradicates the virus in the wild. Highly infectious polio affects mostly children under age 5, invading the nervous system and potentially causing “total paralysis in a matter of hours.