World Polio Day October 23rd

This step is in preparation for the phaseout of all oral polio vaccine (OPV) after transmission of the wild poliovirus has been interrupted worldwide.

Rotary members have been active for more than two decades in immunization campaigns and in fundraising involving the “two drops” of OPV squeezed into a child’s mouth. In extremely rare cases, OPV, which contains live, weakened virus strains, can mutate and spread in populations that are underimmunized, causing polio. Switching to IPV, which uses killed virus strains that can’t cause the disease, will prevent such vaccine-derived cases.

In early June, Rotary Foundation Trustees approved $5 million for IPV for India’s schedule of routine immunizations.

“OPV is still being used because it is the only vaccine with which to achieve eradication,” says Oliver Rosenbauer of the World Health Organization, a GPEI partner.

“Both IPV and OPV offer personal protection, but only OPV has the added benefit of interrupting person-to-person transmission.

This is essential in eradicating a disease. With IPV,” he continues, “I’m protected, but I’m still infectious toward others. We need OPV to eradicate the disease, but after that, we need to stop using OPV. Otherwise, we’ll keep seeing polio cases caused by the vaccine itself.” Ninety percent of vaccine-derived cases are caused by the type 2 strain of the virus. Type 2 wild poliovirus was eradicated in 1999; since then, the only type 2 cases of polio seen have been vaccine-derived. So another important step will be for routine immunization programs to shift from the use of trivalent OPV — for types 1, 2, and 3 poliovirus — to bivalent OPV, for types 1 and 3. All countries are on track to make the switch in April.

OPV and IPV have played distinct yet complementary roles in bringing the world closer than ever to polio eradication. The introduction of IPV, the switch from trivalent to bivalent OPV, and the phased withdrawal of OPV are all crucial steps to ensure that the fight against polio will be finished once and for all.

Although polio has not been seen in Great Britain and Ireland for many years, it is vital that we continue our efforts to eliminate the disease worldwide in order that it can never return. Rotary clubs in Great Britain and Ireland have so far donated over £20 million (€24 million) to End Polio Now.

Our efforts to eradicate polio have been described as one of the finest humanitarian projects the world has ever known and Rotary has even been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. The eradication of polio when completed will be one of the most significant achievements in public health since the eradication of smallpox.