PATNA: With 39 fresh cases of polio being reported from different parts of the state between November 12 and December 27 last year, the Bihar government is at its wits’ end to know how to prevent the disease from taking a UP-like turn which accounted for 1,135 of the 1,398 polio cases reported in the country last year. Only 12 such cases were reported in Jharkhand.

With the National Immunisation Day (NID) falling on January 5, the Bihar government has decided to pay special attention to the districts bordering UP.

State immunisation officer R K Chaudhary told TNN that 90 per cent of the 97 cases reported in Bihar last year carry the UP strain. Chaudhary said a majority of the cases were reported from the districts bordering UP.

The first round of immunisation will start on January 5 and conclude on January 9 during which about 32,000 teams of government employees will visit every house to administer anti-polio drops to 1.96 crore children in the 0-5 years age group.

The government has directed all the district officials concerned to establish special booths in the areas bordering UP.

The idea is to cordon off all the bordering districts by ensuring hundred per cent immunisation, Chaudhary said.

 He, however, admitted that a lot will depend on the efforts being made by the UP government to combat the disease in that state. Against only 27 cases reported in 2001, 97 new cases were reported in Bihar last year. Of the 97 cases, 74 were reported between September 29 and December 27. All the cases were of the P1W type.  This despite the fact that last year two rounds of sub-national immunisation days (SNIDs) were observed in Bihar on September 29 and November 17. In 2000, only 50 cases of polio were reported in Bihar.

Taken aback by the abnormal spurt in polio incidence in the state after the September 29 round of SNID, medical education and family welfare secretary Afzal Amanullah had requested the Union health ministry on November 12 to check the effectiveness of the anti-polio vaccine being supplied by it to all the states and Union territories for combating the P1W strain.

 A senior official of the department, however, told TNN on January 1 last that the chemical tests of different batches of the vaccine revealed that there was nothing wrong with the vaccine.

Amanullah had told TNN in November that the vaccine manufacturers wanted to perpetuate the disease in India due to vested interest.  Besides, he added, the manufacturers wanted to project a bad image of India.

Amanullah, in his SOS to Union family welfare secretary J V R Prasada Rao, had maintained that the vaccine supplied to Bihar was probably not effective enough to combat the P1W strain. “There can be no single cause or excuse for such an abnormal rise. Therefore, I am led to believe that the vaccine may not be effective against the P1W strain. I am not aware whether every batch of the vaccine is thoroughly tested or not,” Amanullah had told Rao.