Maharashtra has been excluded from the national special polio eradication programme conducted every year as the state has been reporting a steady decline in polio cases.

Talking to Pharmabiz Dr. AP Chitale, assistant director, State Family Welfare Bureau, said under the supervision of the AFP Surveillance Team and the dedicated efforts of the health workers have contributed in a larger way to achieve the goal of eradicating polio from the state.

Last year, said Dr.AB Chitale, out of 634 AFP (Acute Flaccid Paralysis) cases around six cases of polio were reported. And this year out of 687 AFP cases only two polio cases (Thane and Nanded districts) were reported. While the latest national figure for polio is estimated to be around 179 and the global figure is pegged at 493, mainly contributed by 11 developing countries.

Till last year the state was amongst the high-risk states in the country that witnessed six rounds of additional immunization programme, annually. The high-risk states include- Uttar Pradesh that reported 64 cases in the year 2003, West Bengal (28 cases), Karnataka (30 cases), Madhya Pradesh (10 cases), Bihar (13 cases), Andhra Pradesh (15), Rajasthan (4 cases), Delhi (3), Gujarat (3 ), Haryana (3).

Dwelling on the network set up that work towards eradication of polio from the State, Dr. Chitale said, `` We have around 1112 reporting units all over the state. And to check the existence of the polio cases AFP Surveillance Team was created in the year 1997,which also scrutinizes the record keeping system of various health units.'' He further revealed that if any case of AFP is detected in any child under 15 years of age at any government or private hospital, the stool samples of the suspected case is sent for the test to detect the presence of the poliovirus.

Recently, Dr. Chitale, disclosed that WHO officials visited few districts in Maharashtra to check the working of various hospitals that act as reporting units, too and also the functioning of the AFP Surveillance Team.

Though the official report of the WHO officials is yet to reach the State Bureau, but the observations were that the rural health centres performed better than the urban health centres and the rural centres also displayed better management of record keeping. Citing the reason for the same, Dr.AR Belambe, assistant director, State Family Welfare Bureau, who accompanied WHO officials to Latur, Osmanabad and Sholapur districts said, `` Urban areas witness floating population where new group of people are added at a faster pace. Rural areas are better managed due to less mobility of the residing population as compared to the urban areas.''

However, Dr. Chitale averred that WHO officials seemed to be satisfied with the functioning of the system involved in eradicating polio. And now with the exclusion of the State from the special drives immunization programme, he added, the state would only be a part of the normal two-day national immunization programme in booths that are scheduled for January and February next year.