Responding to reports of re-surfacing of polio cases in India, the World Health Organisation said there is “no threat” to the polio-free status of all South East Asian region countries, including India, and the detection of a rare strain of the crippling disease is “not unusual”.
Noting that all the countries including India maintain a “high vigil” for the detection of the disease, the World Health Organisation’s South-East Asia Regional Office said that no child has been afflicted by wild polio virus since the last case was reported from West Bengal in January, 2011.
The statement comes after a 6-year-old child of Balrampur district in Uttar Pradesh was admitted to a hospital on suspicion of polio, following which the state health officials have sent a report to the WHO.