A child receives oral polio vaccine

Rajeshwar Tiwari, Indian State Health Secretary, on Wednesday said that the crippling polio virus has resurfaced in India after over five years.

He said that the outbreak has forced the southern state of Telangana to declare a health alert in Hyderabad.

Tiwari said that a strain of the wild polio virus was detected recently in water samples collected from a drain in Hyderbad’s Amberpet area.

“The virus (type-II) was found in laboratory tests conducted on samples of sewerage water collected at Amberpet in Telangana.

Tiwari said that India has maintained a polio-free status since 2011 and the state government has said that there is no need to worry even though it airlifted two lakh vaccines from Geneva to vaccinate 300,000 children.

The Secretary added that the government is also planning to launch a massive campaign against polio as part of preventive measures, aimed at vaccinating children in the age group of six weeks to three years. (Xinhua/NAN)