A two-year-old boy in a remote village in Meghalaya's West Garo Hills district has been diagnosed with symptoms of poliomyelitis or polio at a hospital in Assam's Goalpara, sounding an alarm over a potential return of the virus since India is officially a polio-free state since 2014. The last polio case was detected in 2011.
It is yet to be ascertained if it is a wild poliovirus or a circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV), sources told NDTV. The state government has alerted the Centre and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The suspected case in Meghalaya, if confirmed, would trigger concerns, given no wild poliovirus cases have been reported in the country since 2011.
Poliomyelitis, commonly called polio, is a highly infectious disease caused by the poliomyelitis virus. A team of doctors from WHO have also arrived in the village of Tikrikilla to collect samples.
Meanwhile, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said the government will review the situation regarding a suspected polio case in the state before issuing an official statement and outlining a plan of action.
Mr Sangma emphasized the seriousness of the matter and said, "We need to be very careful, the government is still determining the specifics of the case, I will review this in a couple of days…we are determining many factors and will come up with an official statement as well as a plan of action."
