A proposed injectable polio vaccine may cut down the risk of contracting the paralysing disease
SOMETIMES the mode of
administering a vaccine
into the human body may
affect its efficacy considerably. This has been reinforced by American scientists working on the effectiveness of polio vaccine.
According to recent reports it is being sugges
ed that there should be a
gradual transition from
oral polio vaccine to its
injectible form, to cut the risk of contracting the disease.
To provide immunity against the
polio virus, two types of oral vaccines
are usually administered - one using
an injection that contains dead polio
virus, and the other using live but weakened virus, both cultured in kidney
tisues of Rhesus monkeys. This vaccine
would counter polio which is characterised by symptoms that range from
mild nonparalytic in *fection to an extensive paralysis of voluntary muscles.
Although injected polio vaccine is
less effective than its oral counterpart, it
may be less risky. It provides sufficient
immunity against the virus and prevents
even a ew annual cases of vaccineinduced paralysis, caused by the oral
vaccine. Against this background, a
panel of experts in the USA recommended recently that the injected polio vaccine should be used until "the disease is
eradicated worldwide, a goal that may
be achieved by AD 2000".
Meanwhile, the advisory committee
on inimunisation practices, of the
Centre for Disease Control and Prevention ((DC) in the USA, has taken a middle
position. It recommends a transitional
strategy in which children would get
two doses of injected vaccine, followed
by two (loses of oral vaccine. This would
reduce the number of vaccine-iticluced
polio cases by 50 to 75 per cent, believe
the proponents of the injectable vaccine.
The committee further feels that
,eventually, the country should move to
the injected vaccine only". And with
CDC Yet to finalise the proposed
timetable for changing the immunisation regimen, physicians in the USA Will
have to wait for the green signal to go
for that better option.
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