India to get ‘polio-free’ certificate by World Health Organization

India is set to get a ‘polio-free’ status by the World Health Organization (WHO), as not a single polio case has been reported in the last 3 years. However, studies show that due to the excess dosage of polio experts suspect that another type of paralytic condition has cropped up.

India will get a certificate as a polio-free country by March, leaving Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria as polio-centric nations. Interestingly, the last case of polio was reported on January 13, 2011 from West Bengal. India’s striking figures in polio abolition, although, has seen a steady sidelining of the rising cases of non-polio acute flaccid paralysis (NPAFP). India has reported at least 53,000 cases of NPAFP in the last 13 months. Many believe that in a bid to get a polio-free certificate, the government of India deliberately sidelines the rising cases of NPAFP, reported media.

Acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) is a condition in which a patient suffers from paralysis those results in droopy limbs due to reduced muscle tone. While AFP is indicative of polio, it can occur by other diseases such as the Guillain Barre Syndrome and nerve lesions as well—the primary cause fuelling the argument that India is not really free of wild polio virus.

“The increased number of non-polio AFP cases being investigated by the national polio surveillace programme (NPSP) has been due to an increased reporting of AFP cases following deliberate efforts made by the programme to increase the sensitivity of the surveillance system in order to reduce the risk of missing any polio cases,” WHO representative to India Nata Menabde told media.

She said, “The intensity of these actions was monitored very closely in UP (Uttar Pradesh) and Bihar—the two traditional polio reservoir states—to ensure no polio cases gets missed in these states.”

Around 12,000 NPAFP cases were reported in India which saw a rise to 25,000 in 2005. Sadly, in 2007, NPAFP cases grew by 40,000 and in 2011, it touched about 61,000.

Delhi’s St Stephens Hospital doctors Neetu Vashisht and Jacob Puliyel, who collected statistics from the national polio surveillance project, established a connection between the rise in polio dose of and the growing cases of NPAFP.

Jacod was quoted by media as saying, “Most experts will tell you the cases of NPAFP have increased because of better surveillance. This is bunkum. As per global benchmarks, as polio incidence comes down, the rate of NPAFP should also reduce. Instead, AFP cases have been increasing steadily.”

“In 2010, the government reduced the number of pulse polio doses from 10 to 6. What we found was that between 2010-2013, the number of APF cases also came down. Our paper argues that other kinds of polio are being caused by the excessive administration of polio dosages. Another proof is that states like Kerala and Goa, where dosages were less, AFP cases was also less. Majority of NPAFP cases are reported from Bihar and UP, where several immunization rounds are held to reach universal coverage. These are figures the government does not want to admit,” Jacob adds.