A total of 352 wild polio cases (map attached) were confirmed in India (as on 29th Sep ’06). Of the 352 cases, 245 cases were due to P, serotype and the rest 7 cases due to P, serotype (all from Moradabad Dist. of Uttar Pradesh). The current polio outbreak in Uttar Pradesh is of great concern which is spreading to other states of India. The current outbreak is due to deterioration of Supplementary Immunization Activity (SIA) in 2005 and early 2006 in several districts of UP resulting in accumulation of non-immune children
Current strategies envisaged for the country:
- Conduct SNID in most states of India on 12th Nov ’06 (map attached)
- Continue to use mOPV1
- mOPV3 to be used in selected district of Western UP during December, 2006.
- Two rounds of IPV to be used in two districts of Western UP – Moradabad and JP Nagar for children aged 2-24 months of age during early 2007.
- Conduct 2 rounds of NID during Jan/Feb for the year 2007.
- Sustains quality AFP surveillance
- Conduct state wise Immunization weeks for all routine EPI antigens, in December ’06 and Jan & Feb 2007.
Interventions to improve SIA quality include:
- Enhancement of government ownership
- Increased redeployment of experienced NPSP staff
- Birth dose mOPV1 pilot in Moradabad
- Increased social mobilization network
- Enhancing IPC skills of vaccination teams
- Focus on better quality house-to-house activity targeting missed children
- Intensified monitoring.
WHO recommends pre-release testing of OPV. All samples tested during 2004-2006 were found to have 100% titres above minimum recommended.
Despite the outbreak, the genetic lineages of polio virus family have declined from seven in 2004 to two in 2006 for polio virus type 1.
