Polio virus 'escapes'
2004-10-07 08:33
New Delhi - The polio virus "escaped" twice from laboratories in India in recent months and could set back the country's eradication programme, reports said on Wednesday.
Laboratory strains of the virus were identified in three polio cases in 2000 and another seven recently, the Times of India newspaper reported.
The Indian government is aware that its effort to eradicate the crippling disease could be at risk if the virus were to escape from different laboratories.
A task force under the chairmanship of the director-general of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has been set up to prepare a detailed list of laboratories storing the virus.
ICMR officials, however, say the process may take up to two years. India has a large number of private laboratories which do not require registration. Enumerating or collecting reports from them would be difficult.
Polio usually affects children aged below five years. It attacks the central nervous system, causing paralysis, muscular atrophy, deformation and, in acute cases, death.
India is one of six countries that remain polio endemic according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). The other countries are Nigeria, Pakistan, Niger, Afghanistan and Egypt.
In spite of a massive eradication effort aided by international agencies, 300 cases of polio were detected in India 2003. A United Nations initiative aims to globally eradicate the disease by 2005. - Sapa-dpa
- SAPA