Vaccine-derived polio case confirmed in Meghalaya, authorities on high alert
The World Health Organization declared India polio-free in 2014 as the last case in the country was reported in 2011.
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A case of vaccine-derived polio has been confirmed in a two-year-old child from Meghalaya’s Tikrikilla, reported The Hindu on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, a senior official from the Union Health Ministry stated that this was not a case of wild polio but rather an infection that individuals with low immunity may contract.
The case has led officials in the West Garo Hills district to be on high alert.
The World Health Organization declared India polio-free in 2014. The last case of wild poliovirus in the country was reported in 2011.
The symptoms of poliovirus can include fatigue, fever, headache, vomiting, diarrhoea or constipation, sore throat, neck stiffness, pain or tingling sensations in the arms and legs, severe headaches, and sensitivity to light, also known as photophobia.
Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said that the two-year-old exhibited symptoms of polio over a week ago and was diagnosed with acute flaccid paralysis at a hospital in Assam’s Goalpara.
Health officials in the state sent stool and other samples collected from the child to testing centres operated by the Indian Council of Medical Research's National Institute of Virology in Kolkata and Mumbai, reported The Hindu.
“We are still examining the issue,” Sangma told reporters in Meghalaya’s capital Shillong. “It is a very serious situation that will be reviewed soon.”
The oral polio...
