Hey guys, what’s up? I am Dr. Prasoon here. Pulse Polio immunization program is on the verge and it is coming up on the 19th of January this year. So why are we still giving oral polio vaccines? what are the difference between oral polio vaccine and the inactivated polio vaccine? which one is better for your child? and where does India stand in the polio eradication program?. That’s coming up in this video this is Dofody. The best platform where you can talk to doctors online in India. So let’s get started. if you haven’t subscribed to our channel yet, please do it right now and when you do that please click on the bell icon and then the All button, so that you do not miss out on any of our future videos.
First of all, you must be aware of India’s achievement in the polio eradication program. The last case of polio or poliomyelitis in India was detected in 2011, and exactly three years later in 2014, the World Health Organization declared India as a polio-free nation. Now that was a huge achievement considering the number of children below the age of five years in India. We were able to achieve the polio-free nation status only because we adopted a strict polio immunization campaign which mainly focused on giving the oral polio vaccine.
Polio has no treatment, polio cannot be cured. But it can be prevented and polio can be prevented using two vaccines, both of them are safe and effective. Till December 2015, the Indian government had included only the oral polio vaccine in its immunization schedule, and now both types of vaccines are being used to prevent children below 5 years from the paralyzing disease poliomyelitis.
Now, what are the differences between oral polio vaccine and the inactivated polio vaccine? As you can see in this table,
The main difference between these two vaccines is in their route of administration when oral polio vaccine is given as oral drops which are administered through the mouth, Inactivated poliovirus vaccine is given as an injection.
Talking about the vaccine property, the oral polio vaccine is a live attenuated vaccine. It simply means that though the oral polio vaccine contains weakened viruses they are still live. on the other hand, the inactivated polio vaccine contains only killed virus particles that have the property to produce an immune response in the human body. When it comes to the level of protection offered by these vaccines, oral polio vaccine protects both the individual and the community as well, that means a child who has received an oral polio vaccine dose is protected from polio and along with that other unvaccinated children in the vicinity of this Child also gets the protection.
But when it comes to inactivated polio vaccine only the child who gets the injection is protected and other children and the rest of the community is not protected from IPV unless they individually get the injection.
When it comes to the cost side, the oral polio vaccine is cheap and the inactivated polio vaccine is almost five times expensive. When it comes to the immunity, oral polio vaccine works mainly in the guts, intestines and it also provides humoral immunity which means the antibodies will be present in the blood also. But when it comes to the inactivated polio vaccine, only humoral immunity which means that the antibodies against the poliovirus will be found mainly in the blood and only limited protection will be there in the intestine and the guts.
Did you know that poliovirus is transmitted from person to person through fecal, oral route. A person gets infected when contaminated food or water enters a healthy person’s intestine.
I’m talking about the dosage. Oral polio vaccine is given as two drops, at least fire drop should be given to every child before the child attains the age of five years, and when it comes to inactivated poliovirus vaccine. It can be given either intramuscularly 0.5 ml as a single dose or it can also be given as intradermal 0.1 ml injections and at least two such doses should be received before the age of one year.
When should these vaccines be given?. The oral polio vaccine should be given in 5 doses, at 6 weeks after birth, 10 weeks, 14 weeks, 18 months, and at 5 years of age. The inactivated poliovirus vaccine should be given as 2 doses if it is intradermal and these 2 doses should be given at 6 and 14 weeks after birth, or if you are giving it from a private hospital they will usually go for an intramuscular route and that will be given at 14 weeks after birth. In October 2019, India celebrated 25 years of Pulse Polio immunization program.
The Pulse Polio immunization program was started in 1995 where in two drops of the oral polio vaccine was given to all children irrespective of their previous immunization status below the age of five years. Now these drops were given on special immunization days and most commonly these two days were in the months of January and February. This year in 2020 the possible immunization program is going to be held on the 19th of January Sunday and two drops of oral polio vaccine will be given to all children below the age of five years irrespective of their previous immunization status.
Another important difference between oral polio vaccine and inactivated poliovirus vaccine is the risk of developing vaccine-associated paralytic polio. Now as oral polio vaccine contains live alternated virus particles, there is a very rare chance that a child who receives the oral polio vaccine can develop poliomyelitis from the vaccination itself. This is not so in the case of inactivated poliovirus vaccine. Inactivated poliovirus vaccine contains the killed types of three strains of poliovirus and there is no such risk of developing a vaccine-associated paralysis when IPV is used. In India alone in 1999 to 2001 almost 200 cases of vaccine-derived poliovirus was detected every year and this number was found to be more than what is actually recommended by the World Health Organization.
A recent study in The Lancet published in 2017 shows that vaccine-associated polio is becoming more relevant when compared to the wild poliovirus cases. In 2019 October World Health Organization declared northern Nigeria as a country that is free of type 3 poliovirus. That simply means that only one single type, type 1 poliovirus is the main culprit that spreads polio all around the world. Polio cases are still being reported in parts of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.
The current oral polio vaccine that we are using in India is a bivalent one, which contains both type 1 and type 3 strains. Till 2014 we were using trivalent oral polio vaccine which contained all three types, type 1, 2 & 3 strains of polioviruses, and it was in 2014 that the switch from the trivalent oral polio vaccine to a bivalent one by removing the type 2 strain was made possible.
Now what you should understand from this video is that your child should be vaccinated from both oral polio vaccine and inactivated poliovirus vaccine if you are living in India, and it is better to get the IPV vaccine first before giving the oral polio vaccines. There is no point in giving your child multiple doses of oral polio vaccine without protecting your child by giving at least two doses of inactivated poliovirus vaccine.
So both these vaccines are absolutely necessary and within a few years, oral polio vaccine will be slowly removed from immunization schedules in India and across the world also, and at that time only inactivated poliovirus vaccine will be available to prevent your child from poliovirus infection. So make sure that your child gets at least two doses of inactivated poliovirus vaccine before the age of one year, and then your child should also be getting oral polio vaccines particularly if you are living in India.
Oral polio vaccine alone is not sufficient to protect your child completely from a poliovirus infection, and for that inactivated poliovirus vaccine should also be given. The oral polio vaccine was simple to administer as it was given in the form of two drops, two life-saving drops. But in the long run, only the inactivated poliovirus vaccine is going to completely protect your child from a poliovirus infection.
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