No wild polio strain found: Health Ministry official

June 17, 2022

According to a senior Health Ministry official, No wild poliovirus but vaccine derived poliovirus (VDPV) was detected in the environmental surveillance of sewage samples from Kolkata.
The genetic sequencing is done at the ICMR National Institute of Virology, Mumbai, and this was discussed with the World Health Organization (WHO).
The Ministry said that the last time such a VDPV was detected was in New Delhi in 2018.
State health officials detected the presence of VDPV from sewage in Kolkata earlier this week.
A VDPV is a strain of the weakened poliovirus that was initially included in OPV and that has changed over time and behaves more like the wild or naturally occurring virus.
According to the WHO, Poliomyelitis (polio) is a highly infectious viral disease that largely affects children under five years.
The virus is transmitted person to person and spread mainly through the faecal oral route and multiplies in the intestine, from where it can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis.
Of the three strains of wild poliovirus, type 2 and 3 strains have been globally eradicated.
According to the WHO, as on 2020, wild poliovirus type 1 affects two countries — Pakistan and Afghanistan.