New injectable polio vaccine to be introduced in State in April

Karnataka is all set to introduce yet another vaccination in its routine immunisation programme.

The Injectable Polio Vaccine (IPV) will be added to the list of vaccines mandatorily given to a newborn baby.

The IPV, containing inactivated polio virus, will be given to children born after April 2016. Karnataka will be the seventh state in the country after states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to introduce the vaccine.

An infant will be given the vaccine injection in its right thigh in the 14th week, according to Deputy Director (Immunisation), Department of Health and Family Welfare, Dr A Ramachandra Bairy.

As the child turns 14 weeks old, it is being given the pentavalent vaccine and the third dose of the oral polio vaccine (OPV). The injectable vaccine will be administered to the child along with these two vaccines.

The launch of the new vaccine is being planned in the first week of April.
 The IPV would be made available free of cost as it is being considered in the routine immunisation programme. However, the State government will incur a cost of Rs 120 per dose.

Global shift
India has been declared polio-free by the World Health Organisation for five years now, with no fresh cases being reported in the country. As part of the ‘Global Polio Endgame Strategic Plan’, the polio vaccine will be withdrawn from the countries declared polio-free in a phased manner. A few years down the line, the OPV will be also phased out.
As many as 156 countries will see a shift from the existing trivalent polio vaccine (tOPV) to bivalent polio vaccine (bOPV) between April 16 and 30. In India, the shift will take place on April 25.

While the tOPV offers immunity against all the three strains of the polio virus, P1, P2 and P3, the bOPV vaccine will offer immunity against P1 and P3 with the global certification being done against the P2 virus form in September 2015.

“The tOPV will be withdrawn from every medical establishment in the country and replaced by bOPV. However, the dosage and administration will remain the same,” said a senior official in the health department.

What is IPV?

Injectable polio vaccine or IPV ensures additional immunity of the child. While the OPV provides immunisation against the virus in the gut (the gastrointestinal tract), the injectable vaccine would give humoural immunity (in the blood) to protect the child even if it is a carrier of the virus.

It will be introduced in Karnataka in April.

Ideally administered to a child in its 14th week or mandatorily before the completion of a year.