Sadique Ahmad, the Bihar state communication for development officer, Unicef, on Wednesday rejected reported cases of polio from Baheri block of Darbhanga.

He added that these are cases of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) - not polio suspects. On February 19, two cases of alleged polio suspects were reported at primary health centre of Baheri block of the district, about 175km northeast of Patna. Rabindra Kumar, 2, from Hathori Kothi and 11-month-old Faizan Ahmad from Modga village of Baheri block were taken to Baheri primary health centre where they were initially thought to be polio suspects.

Ahmad said: "Because of communication gap between media and the medical officer in charge of Baheri PHC, the cases of AFP was allegedly declared to be the cases of polio suspect. Polio is incurable disease while the status of child is improving slowly and gradually that indicates that the cases that were reported of polio suspects are in fact the case of AFP. Another reason behind the reported cases that they are the cases of AFP are that these children had regularly been administered the required vaccines as per the routine immunisation state card. We have collected the stool samples from both the children to be sent to Ahmedabad for test."

District immunisation officer Shashi Kant Singh has consistently been monitoring the case. He said the children have been moving, playing well.

Bihar had witnessed last polio case from Motihari district in September 2010.