Worldwide switch to new polio vaccine rolled out
Healthcare providers in 155 different countries and territories all over the world will start switching to a new polio vaccine today, in what they hope to be the final push against the disease.
The shift, which will continue over the next two weeks and is expected to be completed on May 1 this year, is the “largest and fastest globally coordinated rollout of a vaccine into routine immunization programs in history,” according to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
The World Health Organization (WHO) stated that they are changing their strategy in eradicating the debilitating disease by tackling certain strains of the disease in hard-to-reach areas rather than conducting a mass immunization program. In a press release, Michel Zaffran, Director of Polio Eradication at the World Health Organizationsaid, “We’re closer than ever to ending polio worldwide, which is why we are able to move forward with the largest and fastest globally synchronized switch ever.”
The old oral vaccine (tOPV) protected against three strains of poliovirus. The new oral, two-strain polio vaccine (bOPV) will tackle the two remaining variations of the wild polio virus, type 1 and type 3. According to the initiative, this transition is possible since the transmission of type 2 polio has already been eradicated.
It also stresses the importance of closely synchronizing this transition globally: “if some countries continue to use tOPV it could increase the risk of the spread of type 2 poliovirus to those no longer using tOPV.”
Zafran also said that the failure of the program now means the virus could spread across borders once again. “Taking our foot off the pedal now could mean polio will within a few years spread straight back into large parts of the world and create 100,000 or 200,000 cases.” He also adds, “The job has not been done and will not be done until we have fully eradicated the virus.”
When the initiative started in 1988, “more than 350,000 children were paralyzed every year.” Last year, only 74 cases wild poliovirus were reported, exclusively in Pakistan and Afghanistan, according to the initiative.In 2016 and also in these two countries, 10 cases have been reported so far. Meanwhile, Africa has been entirely free of the disease for more than a year.
If the campaign succeeds, polio could be the second disease to be eradicated since smallpox was declared extinct in 1980.
Source: Independent/NPR
