New Delhi: India’s polio-free status could have taken a beating on Thursday when an 18-month-old male baby from Bihar’s Darbhanga district was suspected to have contracted the disease.

Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare officers broke into celebrations on Thursday evening when a phone call from the Enterovirus Research Centre, Mumbai, informed them that the suspected case of polio reported from Bihar had tested negative for wild poliovirus.

Earlier in the day, the Ministry went into a tizzy on being informed of the suspected case of polio from Darbhanga, Bihar. Soon, the government declared an immunisation drive in 28 districts of the State as a precaution, while carrying out detailed investigation into the case.

Pranab says Bihar may see the second green revolution

Sixteen SUVs which the Union Health ministry had provided for its vector-borne disease control programme — to be used for surveillance purposes — have become a bone of contention between the minist

With six more deaths reported from several areas today, the toll in the powerful earthquake rose to eight in Bihar, official sources said.

Alto gether 18 children were born blind in the arsenic affected blocks of Bhojpur district during the past three months, Bihar health minis- ter Nand Kishore Yadav confirmed on Wednesday.

The cause of the blindness was not yet known, but health department officials were in touch with ophthal- mologists, he said.

PATNA: Altogether 18 children were born blind in the arsenic affected blocks of Bhojpur district during the past three months, Bihar Health Minister Nand Kishore Yadav confirmed.

The cause of the blindness was not yet known, but health department officials were in touch with ophthalmologists, he said.

Even as the Bihar government has declared 26 of its 38 districts as drought-affected, several parts of Darbhanga, Madhubani, Saharsa and Supaul districts have been facing flood, affecting over one lakh people. Over 100 houses have been washed away in Supaul and Saharsa because of Kosi water flooding the fields.

Two children, including an infant, died after being administered vaccines in a Bihar village, health officials and parents said Tuesday.A 20-day-old boy died Monday, a day after he was administered DPT and BCG vaccines in Kamrauli village of Darbhanga district, about 200 km from here.

M.J. PRABU

Good catch: Ashok Singh in his fish farm at Madhubani district in Bihar.

The grit and determination with which some of the farmers who have succeeded despite the odds against them has served as a valuable guide for others.