There were reports
in a section of press describing occurrence of an unknown disease
in human beings and goats of Gumbli village, Thiruvellur district
of Tamil Nadu. The news report has two components namely disease
in human beings and disease in goats. The factual position on
both the components is as follows:
Disease in human
beings - A total of 8 human cases with three deaths were reported
during a period of six weeks from 1st February to 14th
March, 2002. The clinical presentation in majority of the cases
were tingling and numbness in limbs. Two cases had ascending progressive,
flaccid paralysis with sensory disturbance and bladder and bowel
dysfunction with normal peripheral nerve conduction studies which
does not match with the clinical profile of poliomyelitis. National
Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) analysed four stool
samples and six serum samples from the cases and isolated Poliovirus
type III (Vaccine strain) from two of the cases. The isolates
were sent to Entro-Virus Research Centre (ICMR institute), Mumbai
for genomic analysis and result confirmed that this is a vaccine
strain of Poliovirus and not a wild virus. Hence, the available
clinical, epidemiological and laboratory evidence indicate that
this episode could not be related to poliomyelitis.
Disease in Goats
- Earlier, from 3rd January to 14th
March, 2002, an outbreak of unknown disease was reported in the
same village in goats where about 200 goats had died. A total
of nine serum samples, one from ailing goat and eight from grazing
goats along with one brain specimen were analysed. The results
indicated absence of antibodies against Poliovirus in ailing goat
and no virus could be isolated from the brain tissue indicating
that Poliovirus is not associated with this illness. The Polio
like antibodies were detected in four out of the eight healthy
goat serum samples. Since there is no known occurrence of Polio
antibodies among goats as per the available literature, the presence
of Polio like antibodies could be due to cross reaction with some
other viruses. NICD has not yet finalised its report and further
investigation is still in progress on the cause of death of the
goats.
