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New Delhi: A virulent outbreak of polio in northern India has led to a near tenfold increase in the number of cases nationwide and resulted in the incurable virus emerging in countries in Asia and Africa.
Originating in two districts in Uttar Pradesh in northern India, the disease has affected 416 people this year and spread to Bihar, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Maharashtra. By the same point last year, India had registered 43 polio cases.
Genetic analysis of fresh cases in several previously polio-free countries, including Bangladesh, Nepal, Angola, Namibia and Congo, points to India, which has a large migrant population, as the source of a new global outbreak of the disease.
"There are only two countries in the world exporting polio across national borders. One is India, and specifically the state of Uttar Pradesh, and the other is Nigeria," said David Heymann, special representative for polio eradication at the World Health Organisation.
With more than 40 per cent of government medical officer positions in districts of western Uttar Pradesh lying vacant, the populous state is the single weakest link in global efforts to eradicate the disease, polio eradication officials say.
"India as a whole has never been more committed but, at state level, until all positions are filled, they will have a very difficult job in succeeding in their efforts as they will have to bring in people from outside," Heymann said.
The number of new polio infections worldwide fell from an estimated 350,000 in 1988 to a little less than 700 in 2003 a reduction of more than 99 per cent but has now climbed back to 1,500 so far this year, with over a quarter of them in India.
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