<div>India has done well to respond swiftly to allay apprehensions over the return of polio in the country. The government has ordered anti-polio vaccine to be administered immediately to around 3,00,000 children aged six weeks to three years in the high-risk districts of Hyderabad and Rangareddy. A massive vaccination campaign is to be held here in the coming week. A strain of the Vaccine Derived Polio Virus (VDPV) was found in a sewage in Hyderabad. Fortunately, no child has been found to be affected by the virus. Understandably, it triggered a wave of concern among parents and set alarm bells ringing in the public health establishment. Has polio, which had been eradicated from the country only recently, returned? Polio was endemic in India. Then in the late 1990s, an international campaign to eradicate polio was set in motion. Determined efforts of governments, funding agencies and millions of health workers contributed to the success of the campaign. While a few countries continue to report new polio cases, India’s last new case of wild polio virus infection was reported in 2011. In 2014, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared India a polio-free country. A country which once saw 50,000 new cases of polio annually had finally eradicated this crippling disease. Eradication of polio is in fact one of India’s greatest public health achievements. Is that success in peril now? The government has said it is not, an assertion which the WHO has affirmed. The WHO has announced that detection of the VDPV is a “low-level threat.” Still, it must be taken seriously. India’s decision to initiate a special immunisation drive as a preventive measure is correct.<br /><br />The detection of VDPV in Hyderabad is likely to revive the debate over the efficacy of using injectable polio vaccine (IPV) over oral polio vaccine (OPV). The WHO had advocated a “global switch” in strategy from OPV to IPV. While India too adopted this in December last year, it continues to use OPV. Some health experts have blamed the re-emergence of the polio virus on India’s continued use of OPV. But proponents of OPV say that oral vaccine is more suited for countries like India due to its efficacy, lower cost, ease of administering, etc. IPV may be more expensive in the short run but in the long term, the costs of polio returning to India may be greater. India will be under pressure <br />from global pharma companies but the decision must be made after consulting polio and public health experts who have experience of our battle against polio.<br /><br /></div>
<div>India has done well to respond swiftly to allay apprehensions over the return of polio in the country. The government has ordered anti-polio vaccine to be administered immediately to around 3,00,000 children aged six weeks to three years in the high-risk districts of Hyderabad and Rangareddy. A massive vaccination campaign is to be held here in the coming week. A strain of the Vaccine Derived Polio Virus (VDPV) was found in a sewage in Hyderabad. Fortunately, no child has been found to be affected by the virus. Understandably, it triggered a wave of concern among parents and set alarm bells ringing in the public health establishment. Has polio, which had been eradicated from the country only recently, returned? Polio was endemic in India. Then in the late 1990s, an international campaign to eradicate polio was set in motion. Determined efforts of governments, funding agencies and millions of health workers contributed to the success of the campaign. While a few countries continue to report new polio cases, India’s last new case of wild polio virus infection was reported in 2011. In 2014, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared India a polio-free country. A country which once saw 50,000 new cases of polio annually had finally eradicated this crippling disease. Eradication of polio is in fact one of India’s greatest public health achievements. Is that success in peril now? The government has said it is not, an assertion which the WHO has affirmed. The WHO has announced that detection of the VDPV is a “low-level threat.” Still, it must be taken seriously. India’s decision to initiate a special immunisation drive as a preventive measure is correct.<br /><br />The detection of VDPV in Hyderabad is likely to revive the debate over the efficacy of using injectable polio vaccine (IPV) over oral polio vaccine (OPV). The WHO had advocated a “global switch” in strategy from OPV to IPV. While India too adopted this in December last year, it continues to use OPV. Some health experts have blamed the re-emergence of the polio virus on India’s continued use of OPV. But proponents of OPV say that oral vaccine is more suited for countries like India due to its efficacy, lower cost, ease of administering, etc. IPV may be more expensive in the short run but in the long term, the costs of polio returning to India may be greater. India will be under pressure <br />from global pharma companies but the decision must be made after consulting polio and public health experts who have experience of our battle against polio.<br /><br /></div>
