Thiruvananthapuram India may have eradicated polio by administrating oral vaccine but the drug has alarmingly pushed up incidents of non-polio acute flaccid paralysis, popularly known as AFP, according to the April-June issue of the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics.
According to a report by Dr Neetu Vashisht and Dr Jacob Puliyel carried by the journal, the incidence of non-polio AFP had gone up by 12 times over the normal rates with the introduction of Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) ten years ago.
Incidentally, the report appears at a time when Kerala is preparing for another round of OPV today.
Dr Jacob, also a member of the national technical advisory group on immunisation and of the working group on food and drug regulation in the 12th five-year plan, said that there was a definite co-relation between the increase in the number of AFP and the irrational administration of OPV.
Normally, he said, the chances of children under the age of 15 getting affected by non-polio AFP are 1-2 per 100,000.
But the rate of non-polio AFP nationally is now 12 times higher than expected. In 2011, an additional 47,500 children were newly paralysed, above the standard rate of 2 children per 100,000 non-polio AFP cases, the report carried by the journal said.
Dr Jacob said the increase in the occurrence of non-polio AFP could be directly linked to the massive increase in the dosage of OPV in the name of eradication. Although the increase in the non-polio AFP was known for quite some time, it was the first time that a co-relation was established by collecting the data of the national polio surveillance, he said.
