In a very bold move, the World Health Organization (WHO) announces its plan to do the first-ever synchronized polio vaccine switch across 150 countries.
Through Global Polio Eradication Initiative, WHO together with other health organizations and government agencies were able to make a huge impact in the eradication of poliomyelitis or polio.
As a highly infectious viral disease, polio commonly affects infants and children, who often end up permanently paralyzed in the limbs. At least 2 percent of people with paralytic polio could die from the disease, according to Better Health Channel.
The introduction of the two cheap and easy-to-administer types of polio vaccines with live and weakened virus, such as trivalent oral poliovirus vaccine (tOPV), has significantly decreased the number of reported cases from 350,000 in 1988 to 74 in 2015.
Further, it has wiped out wild poliovirus type 2 since 1999, and has been contained the polio in two countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The switch scheduled between April 17 and May 1, however, is necessary to reflect the current needs of the people - that is, protection from the remaining two types of viruses.
The plan is challenging, nonetheless. The present vaccine, which protects people against three strains, cannot be immediately withdrawn in favor of bivalent oral poliovirus vaccine (bOPV) due to increased risk of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPVs).
The weakened virus from the vaccine reproduce in the gut where it replicates and allows the body to create antibodies against it. However, it is also excreted, letting the virus stay in the environment for a period of time.
If one country provides bOPV earlier than the others, it may leave certain communities, particularly those with poor sanitation, vulnerable to infection of the missing strain. cVDPVs may also mutate and spread in places where tOPV is no longer given.
To prepare, WHO already has a stockpile of monovalent poliovirus vaccine containing the wild poliovirus type 2, in case there's an outbreak of cVDPV.
Health experts also expressed worst-case scenarios during the global vaccine synchronization. Aside from explosions of glass vials as they are being disposed through boiling or incineration, "the old and new vials and boxes are almost identical," said a New York Times report.
Moreover, WHO is still hopeful that the type 3 of poliovirus has been eradicated too, because it has not been detected since 2012.
"Following the interruption of transmission of wild poliovirus type 1, the program will eventually withdraw the bivalent oral poliovirus vaccine. In the future, the inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV), which does not pose any risk of generating cVDPVs, will be used in place of OPV," said the initiative.
This plan may therefore help claim a polio-free world.
