Mumbai child becomes fourth Indian to get polio from vaccine

[link to www.thehindu.com]

“The time has come to shift to Injected Polio Vaccine, as this does not cause the disease”

A nine-month-old boy from Navi Mumbai has tested positive for Vaccine- Derived Poliovirus (VDPV) type 2 and is now on ventilator at BJ Wadia Hospital in Parel. This is the fourth such case recorded in the country this year.

“When he arrived, he didn’t have any power in all the four limbs. Now, he is showing signs of improvement. There is flickering and muscle contraction in his legs,” said the director of the Directorate of Health Services, Dr. Satish Pawar.

Arsh Singh, born in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, was brought to Mumbai by his mother when he was two months old. Since then, he has been orally vaccinated for polio five times. “There seems to be a problem with his immunity, which we are examining at the moment. In normal children, the polio virus in the intestines completely dies after about 200-300 rounds of replication. But in this child’s case, due to low immunity, the virus seems to have become virulent, resulting in polio,” said Dr. Pawar.

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