This week the board of directors of Gavi, the international organization that provides vaccines to the developing world, added to its list a new vaccine that could help eradicate polio worldwide and prevent its recurrence.
This new vaccine does not contain the live viruses found in the polio vaccine currently used in some low- and middle-income countries, but includes what is known as an inactivated polio component in a multifaceted vaccine already being used to protect young children from five other dangerous diseases. A similar vaccine is already available in the United States and some European countries.
Why It Matters: Combination Vaccines May Provide Longevity
Oral polio vaccines, which are administered as droplets, have been successful in reducing more than 99 percent of polio cases in recent decades. But because the droplets contain live virus, detectable in the stool of children receiving the vaccine, the virus can spread and cause new infections in countries that do not have good hygiene conditions. This problem will not be present in the new vaccine.
“Today, in 2023, there are more children paralyzed by circulating polio caused by the vaccine than by natural polio virus,” said James Campbell, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the University of Maryland School of Medicine who studies vaccine development.
Campbell sees Gavi’s approval as an “important step” in controlling the virus globally because children in low- and middle-income countries will have access to a product that has long been offered by pediatricians in the United States and Europe.
The vaccine is expected to help prevent infections also because of the simplicity of its logistics. Because the polio vaccine will be in a combination product that is already being given to children, scientists say there will be less chance of a re-emergence of polio in countries that use it when they phase out oral vaccines.
Background: Polio continues to have strongholds in Afghanistan and Pakistan
Polio, whose official name is poliomyelitis, is a highly infectious viral disease that is transmitted mainly through feces in places with poor hygiene conditions. The virus multiplies in the intestine and, by invading the nervous system, causes paralysis. According to specialists, even a single case represents a problem since it could lead to a worldwide outbreak.
The United States has long used an inactivated polio vaccine (or IPV) instead of oral drops, and for the past ten years Gavi has been helping lower-income countries buy it. But the new six-in-one vaccine, called hexavalent, will also protect children against hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenzae, tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough.
Adding protection against polio to the five-component vaccine will increase the cost, but public health officials say the move is still economically advantageous. Fewer doses of the vaccine altogether will help reduce the small expenses that add up, including syringes, special refrigerators and appointments with health personnel.
What’s Next: A worldwide rollout is on the horizon
Countries Gavi serves will now be able to apply for funding to obtain the vaccine, which may already be available by 2024. The vaccine is administered in three doses during the first months of life — plus a subsequent booster before two years — and UNICEF expects the global market for the new vaccine to reach 100 million doses per year by 2030.
2023-07-25 00:37:54
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