Ghaziabad: A detection of poliovirus in a sewage sample from Ghaziabad has triggered an emergency public health response, prompting authorities to launch an extensive door-to-door survey across 12 sensitive localities and place more than 1.5 lakh children under close scrutiny.
The development has raised concerns despite India maintaining its hard-earned polio-free status since January 2011, with no reported case of wild poliovirus and no evidence of community transmission of vaccine-derived polioviruses.
The alert was sounded after environmental surveillance at the Dundahera Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) detected traces of poliovirus. Following the finding, health officials convened an urgent two-hour review meeting involving multiple agencies, after which a decision was taken to conduct an intensive field survey in areas linked to the sewage catchment.
Health workers have been deployed on a war footing to identify children below five years of age, verify their immunisation records and look for any symptoms suggestive of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP), one of the key indicators monitored under the polio surveillance programme.
Officials said that by the first day of the operation, surveys covering more than 5,000 children had already been completed. The exercise will continue until every child in the target age group residing in the identified localities has been screened.
The survey is being closely monitored by specialists associated with the World Health Organization (WHO), underscoring the seriousness with which authorities are treating the detection.
A senior health official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said gaps in routine immunisation could potentially create conditions for vaccine-derived polioviruses to emerge and circulate. “Maintaining consistently high immunisation coverage is critical to preventing any risk of poliovirus transmission,” the official said.
Health authorities are also exploring several possibilities, including whether the virus may have originated from an individual with low immunity or a traveller from another region. Officials stressed that the detection of poliovirus in sewage does not automatically indicate the presence of a confirmed polio case, but serves as an important early warning signal requiring immediate investigation.
Environmental surveillance has become a key component of India’s post-eradication strategy, enabling health authorities to detect poliovirus circulation long before clinical cases emerge.
The areas currently under intensive surveillance include Raj Nagar, Shastri Nagar, Bulandshahr Road, Daulatpur, New Panchwati Colony, Dukna, Hindon Vihar, Kila Bhatta, Mirzapur, Vijay Nagar-I, Vijay Nagar-II and Kharati Nagar.
Confirming the ongoing exercise, Ghaziabad Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sachin Chander Vaishya said health teams had begun a comprehensive door-to-door survey in the 12 localities surrounding the Dundahera STP and that the operation would continue until all children below five years of age had been covered.
While officials have urged residents not to panic, the incident has served as a stark reminder that even after achieving polio-free status, vigilance remains the country’s strongest defence against the return of a crippling disease once feared across India.
A senior health official, requesting anonymity, said there is currently no official evidence of vaccine-derived poliovirus type 1 (VDPV1) circulating in Ghaziabad. The official noted that neither the WHO, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, nor the Global Polio Eradication Initiative has reported any confirmed VDPV1 case in the district. “The present investigation is based solely on the detection of poliovirus in sewage samples collected through environmental surveillance,” the official said, adding that precautionary measures and field investigations have been intensified to rule out any potential public health risk.
(Cover Representative Image: CANVA)
