Delhi Reports Polio, Small Pox Deaths; Officials Call it an Error

India was declared polio-free in 2014, and the world was eradicated of smallpox in 1980.

A health worker administers a polio vaccine drop to an infant in India. 

(Photo: AP)

According to a Delhi government report, two people died of small pox and 11 died of polio last year. If the report is to be believed, polio, which India had rid itself of in 2014, is back to the capital. What's even more frightening is that small pox, which was eradicated from the world back in 1980, is also back to haunt the capital.

There seems to have been an obvious error, say experts.

The report was released on Wednesday and was compiled by the Delhi government's statistics department by taking data from civic bodies, reported Hindustan Times.

It is not possible. There has to be some mistake. The last polio case in the country was in 2011 and smallpox hasn’t been around for years.

A union health ministry official to HT

"It could be a clerical error", HT quoted another health official as saying.

This "error" raises doubts about the reliability of these reports, as the government and health experts draw data from these reports for research or to formulate policy.

Dr AC Dhariwal, director of the National Centre for Disease Control told HT that chicken pox is often mistaken for smallpox. He added that the only known strains are in highly quarantined laboratories, and there is no chance of it spreading.

Only Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria (in the entire world) have wild polio virus in active circulation. One might think the disease could be contracted from the virus circulating in neighbouring countries, but Dhariwal clarifies that any cases or deaths would actually be attributed to the virus being contracted years ago and lying dormant.

The last polio case in India was recorded in West Bengal in 2011. In Delhi, the last case was reported in 2009. The World Health Organisation declared India polio-free since 2014.

Meanwhile, the last natural case of smallpox, according to WHO, was in 1977, in Somalia. The only known case since then was a year later in England’s Birmingham, after a laboratory accident. One person was killed in the incident and the virus was contained.

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