Shillong (Meghalaya), Aug 20: A two-year-old boy in a remote village in Meghalaya’s West Garo Hills district has been found with symptoms of poliomyelitis or polio, prompting health authorities to start an investigation, officials said Wednesday.
The World Health Organisation had declared the state polio-free in 2014, and the last case was detected in 2011,
“A boy with symptoms of poliomyelitis was detected yesterday during routine surveillance. He has been sent to Assam’s Goalpara for treatment,” a senior doctor at the Directorate of Health Services told PTI.
Health authorities in the northeastern state have already started an investigation, a senior district official said.
A team of doctors from WHO have also arrived in the village in Tikrikilla to collect samples, he said.
The village in which the suspected case was detected is one of the clusters with a high number of unvaccinated residents, the official said.
Poliomyelitis, commonly called polio, is a highly infectious disease caused by the poliomyelitis virus.
Source : PTI