LUCKNOW: With fresh outbreak of polio in neighbouring Bihar, Uttar Pradesh may find it hard to wriggle out of the pulse polio loop in 2008.

The proposal mooted by the state government to merge polio drive with the routine immunisation programme has not gone down well with the Indian Expert Advisory Group (IEAG).

According to reports reaching here, during its last meeting held on December 19 in Delhi, IEAG firmly asked UP not to drop intensive campaign in a hurry. This, interpret experts, could mean another two years of wait.

Over the last two years, pulse polio drive had become a subject of raging controversy among health officials who felt that over emphasis on the virus over last 11 years has resulted in a major setback to the National Routine Immunisation (RI) programme in UP.

In an informal survey during August 2006, it was found that out of the 139 polio cases under study, only 23 had undergone complete RI.

In 2007, UP witnessed eight rounds of polio vaccination. Each one conducted by a work force of 1.70 lakh comprising CMO, CMS, doctors, nurses, pharmacists and auxiliary midwife nurses, takes 15 to 16 days roughly.

Since the same task group is also entrusted with RI, "polio fatigue", experts claim, could well be the most prominent cause of lukewarm response to RI.

So, as per the original plan mooted in September-October last year, the state government decided to have 10 vaccination/mop up drives between June 2007 and June 2008 and then fold up the intensive campaign.

The idea was to club the polio vaccine with BCG, DPT and measles vaccine and make it a part of the comprehensive package.

Emboldened by a sharp decline in polio cases — UP reported only 106 cases of polio, both P1 and P3, virus till mid August — the government even issued a GO to rope in 30,000 Accredited Social Health Activists (Asha) to gradually phase out ANMs.

The plan envisaged entrusted urban areas with the community health workers to be specially appointed for the purpose. But then things slid beyond control and took a complete U-turn. By the end of 2007, UP reported 335 cases of P3 and 21 cases of 21, while the number rose to 193 in unsuspecting Bihar — its highest since 1998.

With the complete change in picture, diluting pulse polio at this juncture, is simply out of question, sources in Union health ministry told TOI on Wednesday. UP officials, he claimed, tried to push their case but have been advised against it and intensive vaccination may be here to stay for another two years.