Patna, (Bihar Times) : Want to know why Bihar has in the
last couple of years witnessed highest number of polio
cases. In 2007 it saw 396 cases, against 864 in the
entire country, while in the first five months of this
year as high as 180 cases have been reported, most of
them from North Bihar. Not surprisingly most of the
children who got inflicted are those who have been
administered pulse-polio drops.
Reports say that state’s health officials have found a
new way to keep their wine bottles chilled. They are
keeping them in the polio kits or ice boxes used to
preserve polio vaccines.
In Lauthwa village in Madhubani district last week
liquor bottles accidentally tumbled out of an ice box
used to store polio vaccines when a health department
employees on a Pulse Polio Immunisation Drive opened
it to administer polio drops to children. Madhubani is
one of the 25 districts of the state affected by
polio. There are in all 38 districts in Bihar.
This infuriated the villagers. They protested and then
drove the health workers away. It needs to be noted
that several children died in some parts of the state
after being administered contaminated vaccines.
After the incident civil surgeon Dr Biltu Paswan
ordered lodging of FIRs against the erring health
department staff. He told a newspaper that the health
staff on a polio drive had kept wine bottles in the
ice-box meant for storing polio vaccines. He said that
he had taken a very serious note of the matter.
The incident badly affected the ongoing polio drive in
the region. Besides, the case earned a very bad name
for the health department. This is not the first case
of gross negligence towards the nation-wide campaign
against polio here. Reports say that children between
eight and 10 years have been recruited to administer
polio. Instead of ice boxes the children are using
their own pockets to store the temperature-sensitive
vaccines.
The state government, with the help of the WHO, the
Unicef and the Indian National Polio Plus Committee,
has identified 72 blocks for an intensive anti-polio
campaign to eradicate the disease from Bihar by the
end of 2008. But with 180 cases in just five months
the goal seems to be much more difficult. The youngest
to be inflicted this year is as young as one month and
the eldest just over five years.
Doctors are of the view that unlike the P1 strain the
P3 strain of the virus hardly responds to the vaccine.
