Test confirms poliovirus found in sample of Tukucha sewage not contagious

It is confirmed that the poliovirus found in a sample of the sewage taken from the Tukucha rivulet in Kathmandu last July is not contagious.

Lily Shrestha, the Medical Chief at the National Public Health Laboratory, said that the virus detected in the sample is not polio infectious. The test was conducted in Bangkok, Thailand.

"We did not again find the poliovirus from the tests carried out from time to time on the samples collected from the sewage and other places to determine whether the virus found in the Tukucha rivulet had spread or not. If that virus had spread, it would have been detected in the sewage mixed in the rivulet. This was not the case and we confirmed that it was not the poliovirus," she explained.

Poliovirus was found in a sample collected from the confluence of Bagmati and Tukucha rivulet near Tripureshwar of Kathmandu Metropolitan City-12 last July.

Chief of the Child Health and Immunization Section, Department of Health Services, Dr Abhiyan Gautam, said that samples have been continuously collected and tested 13 times after the detection of the poliovirus in the sample collected from Tukucha rivulet, but it was not detected again.

The Section has been collecting samples and testing them for the presence of poliovirus since 2017. Samples are collected from the Bagmati, Dhobikhola, Manahara, Bishnumati rivers in Kathmandu and tested two times monthly for the presence of poliovirus, Dr Gautam added.

Similarly, samples are collected and tested for the presence of poliovirus once a month in Pokhara, Biratnagar and Janakpur.

Dr Gautam said that polio infection has not been found in the country since 2010.