'Resident virus' blamed for polio case in Hyderababd

A 29-month-old child showing early signs of crippled limbs has been tested positive with the polio virus in Hyderabad. The case happens to be the first one this year in Hyderabad, a city which was consistently reporting presence of the virus in its environmental samples for the last seven months with some 14 reports appearing positive.

The National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication disclosed findings of the stool test of the child, who lives in Union Committee number 50 in Pareetabad area in City taluka, on Thursday night.

The health authorities were conveyed the report through an email that a female child has been detected with Type-I Wild Polio Virus (WPV1) from her stool test.

The child's parents, Lohar Rajput by cast, are local people as Deputy Commissioner Zain ul Abedin Memon dubbed the virus on Friday as a 'resident virus'. "The poliovirus in Hyderabad has taken the form of a resident virus," he acknowledged at a meeting with the health officials on Friday.

The virus has been classified as YB3A and it is 99.22% linked to a virus earlier detected in an environmental sample collected from Hyderabad on May 8. According to the centre, the child had an onset of paralysis on August 3.

The focal person for polio was notified about the virus on August 6 and the child's stool sample was collected the following day on August 7. Another stool sample was taken on August 8 and the samples were sent to the lab on August 12.

The DHO Dr Lala Jaffar said her mother informed the health officials that the child fell sick with diarrhoea for a week. Consequently, she developed weakness in all her limbs as well as in the neck. She was taken to a private healthcare provider who referred them to Liaquat University Hospital (LUH) where she was admitted on August 6. The same day polio investigation was started.