KATHMANDU, July 20: A highly contagious poliovirus has been detected in the sewage of the Kathmandu Valley fourteen years after the Government of Nepal declared the country free from poliovirus. Dr. Abhiyan Gautam, chief of the Vaccination Branch of the Family Welfare Division under the Department of Health Services of the Ministry of Health, said that a 'mutated' form of the poliovirus was found during the test of samples collected from the sewage at the Tukucha-Bagmati confluence in Kathmandu at the end of May.
Dr Gautam informed journalists on Friday that three different forms of the virus were derived from the poliovirus vaccine itself.
According to Dr. Gautam, the poliovirus was found when the sample collected on May 26 was tested at the Regional Reference Lab of the World Health Organization in Thailand.
The test report arrived in Nepal on July 13, after three weeks. Dr. Gautam stated that the virus found was a mutated form of the poliovirus from the polio vaccine given to children, increasing the risk of polio among them. He said that since the virus found is different from the one in the polio vaccine, there is a risk that it could spread among children. Although Nepal declared itself a poliovirus free nation in 2010, this mutated virus has reappeared after almost one and a half decade. The presence of the mutated virus in the environment has increased the risk of the virus spreading.
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The government has been monitoring the poliovirus in the environment since 2017, and this is the first time it has been detected in the environment.
Nepal had declared itself a polio-free nation in 2010. Neighboring India has also declared itself a polio-free nation. Southeast nations were declared polio-free in 2014.
Recently, however, polio was detected in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the context of polio detected in these countries, poliovirus has also been detected in Nepal raising concerns among the stakeholders . Dr Gautam said that this virus, being new and not previously observed elsewhere, may have originated within Nepal's environment.
The chief of the Family Welfare Division, Dr Bivek Kumar Lal, said that if the virus was not detected at the 10th mutation stage or if it was detected later, the risk of infection would have been much higher.
"The virus reached the sewage from the infected person's excrement," he said. Dr. Lal also mentioned that there are plans to intensify the search for infected children. Although Nepal declared itself polio-free, it has continued to monitor and search for polio in people regularly.
After the detection of a new virus not previously seen, the World Health Organization has advised Nepal to immediately launch a vaccination campaign for all children in the nearby areas and to make the search efforts more effective.
As per the organization's recommendation, the Family Welfare Division has completed preparations to administer the oral polio vaccine to all children in the three districts of the valley—Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, and Kathmandu—within a week. Vaccination is scheduled for all children at all vaccination centers from July 24 to July 28. According to global guidelines, the vaccination should be completed within 14 days. “All children receiving the vaccine will be protected from the risk of polio. Our sole recommendation is that no child should miss the vaccination,” Dr Gautam said.
According to doctors, polio is transmitted through contaminated water and food. The virus spreads to another person if it contaminates water or food. Initially, symptoms of polio infection include vomiting and fever, which may gradually lead to paralysis and a lifelong disability. In some cases, the disease can even result in death.
The Family Welfare Division has appealed to the community to report if any signs of paralysis are found in children. The vaccination branch has also urged that all children receive all three doses of the polio vaccine to protect against the disease. Dr Prakash Budhathoki, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Population, emphasized the need to include all children in the special vaccination campaign to mitigate potential risks.
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