Polio Vaccines

Polio is a disease that can cause permanent disability among children. Thanks to vaccine the disease is now almost reduced all over the world. It is given in two forms. Oral polio vaccines OPV and Inactivated polio vaccines IPV. Polio vaccine is made compulsory in almost all countries. Oral vaccines are given in many countries Whereas Polio injection is given in United States. IPV can be combined with DTP and Hepatitis B.

Polio vaccine is proved to be safe and very effective. The first dose should be given after birth. The second dose should be given in 4′Th month and the third dose in 6-12 months. The fourth dose can be given in the child’s 5′Th year. Polio vaccines for adults are not required because they will develop immunity to polio virus. Even the first dose itself shows greater immunity among children. The second and third dose will provide 100% efficiency in preventing polio virus.

OPV provides excellent immunity in the intestine. It helps to prevent wild polio virus. In developed countries where wild polio virus is not common, IPV is recommended. IPV is a killed virus vaccine. You can use it as a shot in the arm. OPV can be taken orally and it contains live virus.

A person who receives polio vaccine will never get the chance of being infected with polio virus life long. There are some advantages in IPV. Since it is not a live virus, you can handle them easily than OPV. It eliminates the risk of polio paralysis. There are no severe side effects reported up to date. But it is not suitable to provide protection against wild polio virus. The cost is 5 times higher than OPV. IPV should be given only by trained health workers. It is an additional shot to your child. But OPV can be easily given by trained or untrained persons. You can give it to children with sugar syrup. It provides long lasting immunity.

Polio must be completely eradicated from the world. So UNICEF and WHO are administering polio vaccination programs in developing countries. National Immunization days are observed in countries where the disease is more. It is proved that nearly 60 % of the children in the world are immunized with polio vaccine.

Recommended Reading

1. Inactivated Virus Vaccines - Vaccine discovery is major scientific tool which helps to increase public health. It has a great impact on global health...
2. Pneumonia Vaccines - Pneumonia vaccine helps to prevent lung infection pneumonia. It prevents pneumococcus bacteria. There are more than 80 pneumococcal bacteria. But...
3. Combination Vaccines - Every child will have nearly 22 shots of vaccines before he enters the school. The parents may think whether it...
4. Vaccine Information - Parents must have the information about the vaccines which are scheduled for their kids. The two vaccines available for Hepatitis...
5. Types Of Vaccines - An antigenic preparation that is used to establish the immunity to a disease is termed a vaccine. The word vaccine...