Bangalore: A new bivalent Oral Polio Vaccine
(OPV) would be introduced in the core endemic areas of Western
Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, which are posing a challenge as far
as polio is concerned in India, to prevent the spread of the
disease, a senior officials of the World Health Organisation
said on Monday.
"Migrant population from Western U P and Bihar has been
found to the major carrier of polio. The introduction of new
bivalent vaccine in core endemic areas in these states by
Jan-Feb 2010 will help prevent the crippling disease in other
non endemic states", Dr Pavana Murthy, Regional Team Leader
for WHO`s National Polio Surveillance Project-India told a
media consultation and workshop on Polio Eradication here.
Earlier, Western U P and Bihar were using the trivalent
vaccine to prevent all three polio viruses of P1, P2 and P3.
However, after the eradication of P2 virus in 1999, they
started using the monovalent vaccine (for eradication of P1).
"The new vaccine however will be able to eradicate both P1 and
P3 viruses", he said.
A WHO report quotes the number of polio cases in these two
states to be 569 (69 of P1 virus and 500 of P3 virus).
The transmission of P1 virus, which completely stopped in
UP in 2007, was reintroduced by a Bihar (Badaun) virus in
Western U P in 2008, Murthy said.
Low immunisation had been one of the factors for the
spread of the disease in Western U P. However, intensified
intervention efforts have controlled the spread of ``imported
virus`` in and around U P, he said.
Bureau Report