Polio virus: Surveillance enhanced in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra & Telangana: Health Ministry

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New Delhi: The Health Ministry on Wednesday said surveillance has been enhanced in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Telangana after traces of Polio Virus Type 2 were found in some batches of oral polio vaccine, and asserted the country remains polio-free.The ministry said a constant vigil is being kept on the shedding of the polio vaccine virus in these areas and it has ordered a probe into the matter. The ministry’s remarks came days after traces of Polio Virus Type 2 were found in some batches of oral polio vaccine manufactured by a Ghaziabad-based pharmaceutical company.

It further said no sample has tested positive for wild polio virus in sewage or acute flaccid paralysis cases since 2011.”The country remains polio-free and this status has been maintained for more than seven years since the last wild polio virus case in the country was reported in January 2011. No child has been infected with wild polio virus as reported in some sections of the media,” the ministry said in a statement.  The government further said that type 2 polio vaccine virus traces, which have been found in bivalent Oral Polio Vaccine (bOPV) vials, is a weakened polio virus and does not cause paralysis and was also earlier used in vaccines till April 2016.The recipients of such vaccine will usually shed the vaccine virus through fecal route for about 4-6 weeks after which it will die down, the statement said.