Polio strain found in sewage water

Article from Subscriber, Mr. Rajkumar Reddy, Hyderabad 

India plans to now vaccinate around 300,000 children against the crippling polio virus after a strain of the highly contagious disease was detected in sewage in the southern city of Hyderabad. India was declared polio free by the World Health Organization in March 2014 after an almost two-decade long, multi-million dollar effort -- lauded as one of the country's largest public health accomplishments in late times.
A health ministry statement confirmed media reports that a lineage of the virus was found in a sewage sample taken near Hyderabad's Secunderabad railway station, but check off that no youngsters in the area were found to be involved. "India remains to be polio free as the country has eradicated the wild polio virus and the terminal event was attended on 13th January, 2011, and it is more than five years that no wild polio virus has been found," the health ministry stated.
The statement said a recent survey of the area found 94 percent of children had at least three doses of the oral polio vaccine and therefore transmission was unlikely. Even so "as a precautionary measure" a special immunization drive would be held from June 20 in the high-risk districts of Hyderabad and Rangareddy, targeting approximately 300,000 kids between the ages of six weeks and three years, it said. Vaccination booths will be put up, the ministry said, and parents encouraged to take their children injected with the Inactivated Polio Vaccine which will offer additional protection against all types of poliomyelitis.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are the only states left in the world where the virus remains endemic. The polio virus attacks the nervous system and can cause irreversible paralysis within hours of infection. It often spreads in countries with poor sanitation, and children under five are the most susceptible.