India to switch from trivalent to bivalent polio vaccine
The plan also envisages to stop oral polio vaccination completely and switch to injectable polio vaccination by 2020
As part of the Indian government's polio immunity strategy, state governments are to stop the trivalent oral polio vaccine (OPV) and switch over to bivalent oral polio vaccine. The Health ministry has directed all state governments to completely utilise the stock of trivalent OPV so that a switchover to bivalent oral polio vaccine can be made from April 25 onwards.
The plan also envisages to stop oral polio vaccination completely and switch to injectable polio vaccination (IPV) by 2020. This will help accomplish the switchover from trivalent OPV to bivalent OPV and then gradually be scaled up until the OPV is completely halted.
As per the plan, six months prior to introducing bivalent OPV, giving one dose of injectable polio vaccine had already started in December 2015 to build immunity against polio in India, said official sources.
The programme is significant because many cases related to vaccine derived polio have been detected globally. The trivalent OPV currently used covers three viruses; disease caused by type 2 virus has not been seen since 1999. India has also been declared polio-free since no case has been detected over the past three years.
