The Government will introduce injectable polio vaccine, in addition to the existing oral polio vaccine, as part of the universal immunisation programme in the Union Territory from April 25, Director of Health K.V. Raman said here on Wednesday.
Talking to reporters here, he said the existing oral polio vaccine used live but weakened form of the polio virus. However, live vaccine viruses can occasionally revert to virulence and there was always a chance of having a live polio virus in the community. With IPV, however, there were no such risks.
Mr. Raman said though India is free of polio, the chances of transmission of wild polio virus still persisted in neighbouring Pakistan and Afghanistan. So the risk of re-emergence of the disease still remained.
The UT had decided to introduced the injectible vaccine as part of a global switch from trivalent oral polio vaccine (TOPV) to bivalent oral polio vaccine (BOPV) in the immunisation programme .
He said that TOPV contained vaccine for stage 1, 2 and 3 of polio infection and BOPV would now have vaccine for stage 1 and 3 infection.
The Government had decided to replace TOPV with BOPV discontinuing vaccine for stage 2, he added.
Mr. Raman said IPV would be administered in two fractional doses (0.1 ml each) for the newborns.
Though the first one is injected few weeks after birth, the second dose is give after 14 weeks along with bivalent vaccines in all government institutions.
The vaccine has already been introduced in the southern states.
The injection will be administered in addition to the existing oral polio vaccine
