India ushered in the use of bivalent vaccine (bOPV) in its pulse polio campaign on Sunday. This bivalent polio vaccine will protect children against P1 and P3 strains of polio virus.
Speaking on the occasion of the National Immunisation Day on Saturday, minister of health and family welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad said the use of bivalent vaccine was introduced in Bihar, for the first time in the country and will also be introduced in Uttar Pradesh from the next round. Around 170 million children may be immunised in this round of national immunisation drive.
Of the three strains of wild polio virus, P1, P2 & P3, Type 2 wild polio virus (P2) was eliminated by the year 1999. The current strategy of the government entails eliminating the more virulent among the existing types, that is P1 while keeping P3 under control. Till now monovalent vaccines ? MOPV1 and MOPV 3 were used in the programme to handle the type 1 and type 3 wild polio virus, respectively. While the monovalent vaccine was found to be effective in containing the transmission of P1, its control of transmission of P3 was found compromised amid the fresh outbreak of Type 3 polio virus in the country. The bivalent vaccine was tested on more than 900 newborns in Indore, Chennai and Pune. Among the Indian players, Panacea Biotech is learnt to have the capacity to manufacture the vaccine. Internationally, at least 5 players, including Europe’s largest drug maker GSK has the licence to manufacture it. Pulse polio programme was started in 1995 to eradicate poliomyelitis.