NEW DELHI: With four cases of polio coming to light here in the Capital, the Delhi Government on Tuesday went into the damage control mode. It claimed that Delhi continued to remain in the "high risk polio zone" as it had a ``rogue'' neighbour in Uttar Pradesh, which was a major source of the polio virus despite several rounds of the Pulse Polio vaccination programme.

According to health experts, all the three new patients — two-year-old Sheikh Ashraf from Jahangirpuri, one-year-old Shivender from Badarpur and eight-month-old Sameer Ali from Okhla — had a history of travel to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, which are known sources of the virus.

Admitting that the surfacing of polio cases in Delhi was a cause for concern, a health official said: "It is not that the polio drops that we are using are not effective, but we have children coming to Delhi from U.P., Bihar and Rajasthan who have missed their Pulse Polio round and thus are carrying the infection with them.''

The Health Department reiterated that polio drops used by it were highly effective.

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