Hyderabad: The Telangana government launched a special vaccination on Wednesday after a poliovirus was detected in a water sample in Hyderabad last month.
The Health Minister Dr C Laksma Reddy said the virus- Vaccinated Derived Polio virus Type-2 was found in a sample which was collected form a drain near the Amberpet sewerage treatment plant on May 17 in a routine tests by the medical and health department.
Additional Health Minister CK Mishra assured that there is no need to panic. An emergency meeting which was held on Tuesday reviewed the situation and said, “India maintains its polio-free status as we have scanned the area and no polio case has been found. This is not the first time that a strain has been found but it is a vaccine-derived polio strain that is found commonly in children with low levels of immunity. They excrete it, which is why it is found in the sewage samples,” Mishra said.
Dr Reddy said the virus strain was detected in Delhi in October last year, besides in parts of Gujarat and Bihar.
Teams of the health department will inoculate around 300,000 children at the 12 locations in Hyderabad that are mostly likely to be affected the virus.
“The government will bear the entire cost of medicines and vaccines to be administered to the children in these areas. We are appealing to all parents to administer vaccines to their children in the age group of six weeks to three years,” Dr Reddy said.
