Govt to rehabilitate 20,000 polio victims

Besides focussing on prevention, the government for the first time has taken up the responsibility of rehabilitating about 20,000 polio victims in the country.

Besides focussing on prevention, the government for the first time has taken up the responsibility of rehabilitating about 20,000 polio victims in the country.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs today earmarked Rs 20 crore for the project: Rs 10,000 each for corrective surgery and rehabilitation by providing prostheses, calipers and special boots to be used by children impaired by polio. This is a part of the Rs 1,039 crore funds approved by the Cabinet today on a Health Ministry proposal.

While estimates show that the country has about 20,000 such cases, the ministry has complete data of about 5,000 such cases since 1997. The polio eradication programme was started in 1997 so the ministry has complete data from that year onwards, said an official.

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Yet, the country’s battle against polio is far from over. According to the figures with the Health Ministry, the polio situation is dismal this year. While only 66 cases (lowest ever in the country) were recorded in 2005, over 60 cases have already been recorded this year and this is worrisome as the peak season starts from July. Experts fear a repetition of 2002 when 1,600 cases were reported (83 per cent of the total cases in the world that year). By mid 2002, Uttar Pradesh had 91 cases which later reached to over 1,200 cases. According to figures, UP is again proving to be the battle ground with 46 cases reported from the state already. Bihar is another troubled state with 12 cases. A case each has also been reported in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.

The ground zero of the disease is district Moradabad in UP, where 26 cases have been reported so far, followed by Badaun and Bareilly.

The Health Ministry says that multiple factors are responsible for the sudden surge in cases this year:

• Deficiencies in the district and block level in Moradabad. Lack of monitoring as the post of medical officer and chief medical officer are vacant. Last year a false list of the number of houses visited for house to house immunisation was provided.

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• Presence of non-polio entrovirus in children’s bodies which doesn’t let the vaccine work. Congestion and poor sanitation in the areas.

• Most of the children are malnourished which makes them vulnerable to various diseases.

According to the Health Ministry the state authorities have promised to fill the posts lying vacant in Moradabad.

‘‘The chief secretary of the state has promised that vacancies will be filled and sanitation and nutrition in the community would be taken care of,’’ said a Health Ministry official.

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David Heyman, special advisor in UN for polio, visited UP last week to express concern over the issue.