By IANS,
New Delhi : As many as 19 fresh polio cases have been reported in the country in the last three-and-half months, the Lok Sabha was informed Friday.
Of the 19 reported cases, Uttar Pradesh recorded nine, Bihar six, and Haryana, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir recorded one case each.
In a written reply, Minister of Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad said an awareness campaign on the paralytical disease has been launched in the country.
In 2009, a total of 741 polio cases were reported in India. Of these, Uttar Pradesh topped the list with 602 cases.
“Bivalent oral polio vaccine (BOPV) has been introduced from January 2010 for the high risk areas,” Azad said.
The vaccine currently being used in the country is a monovalent one. It protects against a single strain (P1) causing the crippling disease. This strain causes large outbreaks and paralyses one out of every 200 children infected.
The other vaccine – MOPV3 – on the other hand, protects against the P3 strain which causes paralysis in one out of every 1,000 infections.
So the government introduced BOPV whose single drop protects against the P1 and P3 strains.