By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Aug 21: Health Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh on Wednesday said the World Health Organization (WHO) is investigating to confirm if the new strain of polio identified in the state is ‘wild polio’.
The first suspected case of the new strain was reported from a village in the Tikrikilla area of the West Garo Hills district on August 14.
A two-and-half-year-old child taken to the Goalpara Civil Hospital for treatment was suspected to have been infected by the poliovirus strain.
Lyngdoh said the Health Department is focusing attention on the child diagnosed with the likely strain of polio. She said the child is under observation and she has been briefed that the child is fine.
“We need to figure this new strain out and whether there will be new advisories. We also need to understand whether or not there is a need to come up with a new vaccine which will cover this new strain,” she said.
She said a new strain has possibly been found after many decades.
The Health Department is awaiting the reports of the child’s samples from a testing centre in Kolkata and a laboratory of the ICMR-NIV in Mumbai.
The Director of Health Services (MCH & FW), JS Momin told reporters that the samples were collected after the Goalpara hospital reported the flaccid paralysis case.
“We are waiting for the final reports. We cannot confirm anything without receiving them,” she said.
She also said that the Health Department is conducting further investigations with support from WHO and they are awaiting further results.
“In the meantime, our staff from WHO went to Tikrikilla to investigate the case and collected samples from the patient as well as the members of the community,” Dr Momin said.
The Health Department’s surveillance team launched a door-to-door campaign across the affected Tikrikilla village on August 16.
The team is expected to collect random stool samples of infants, children, and teenagers. The reason for such collection is the virus is excreted through the faeces of those carrying the disease.
A senior government official said the reason behind the polio infection could be that the child had not been immunised. He said less than 50% of the people in the village of the child are immunised.
Meanwhile, the health minister said she will need to find out if the Centre has given any SOP for the treatment of the new Mpox (monkeypox) virus.
She said the state government cannot take protocols and decisions on its own as it is the Centre’s prerogative. “People are talking about this new virus,” she added.
The Union Health Ministry said the strain of Mpox virus currently in circulation in the Democratic Republic of Congo and more than a dozen African countries is virulent and has a death rate of 3% as opposed to 0.1% from the less virulent strain.
“According to our assessment, the chances of its spread in India from Africa are moderate. We are also not putting in any country-wise alert as there is no cause for alarm as of now. Hospitals and doctors, however, have been told that any patient coming in with symptoms must be reported immediately. India is also looking at large-scale testing provisions, should the need arise,” a senior health ministry official said on Monday, adding that there are no reported cases of Mpox in India as of date.