Telangana: Polio virus resurfaces after 5 years in India

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, June 15, 2016: The Telangana government had to declare an alert in the city after a particular type of polio virus was detected in water sample collected from a drain.

The virus (vaccine derived polio virus type-II), was found in the lab tests conducted on sewerage water samples collected at Amberpet in the capital city of Telangana.

This detection has prompted the 2-year-old Telangana govt to airlift two lakh vaccines from Geneva to vaccinate more than three lakh children.

Since the time polio was eradicated in the country in 2011, this is the first time that this particular strain of wild polio virus has been witnessed in more than five years.

Apart from declaring an alert, the government is also planning to launch a massive campaign against polio as part of preventive measures.

The campaign would be targeted at children in the age group of six weeks to three years.