A true success story

At one time, India accounted for 85% of the global burden of polio cases. Thanks to huge governmental initiative and effort, international help and tremendously dedicated work at the grassroots level and in the planning and execution phases, India has achieved a great milestone in not having a single wild polio virus case in 2012 and all of 2013 up to date.

The biggest credit goes to the extensive immunization program and nearly all children in India have been covered in the Universal Immunization program launched by the Government of India. Additionally, the government regularly conducts mass immunization mop up campaigns twice a year where every child below 5 years of age is administered oral polio vaccine.

What is polio disease?

This is a valid question from the parents of today since they hardly have seen anybody or know anybody who has suffered from the disease. Polio is a highly infectious viral disease that is caused by a virus that enters through the intestines and ends up in the brain and spinal cord. Here it causes irreversible damage to the nervous system and can lead to paralysis of various muscles in the body. There is no known cure for this virus and the  only weapon that we have in our armamentarium is vaccination. Polio can affect children from all socio-economic groups and is not restricted to the poor.

But my son has already received a full course of injectable polio vaccine and my pediatrician says that the injectable form is better, so does he still require these oral doses?

Your doctor is right. the Injectable vaccine confers 100% immunity after 3 doses and has hardly any side-effects. It is made of dead polio virus that has been inactivated by treating with formalin.

The Pulse Polio program is one of the big reasons for India’s success in polio eradication. Oral polio is a vaccine composed of weakened polio virus that passes through the gut of the child and is then excreted in the stools of the child. By this route, it enters back in the environment and is spread there, but in a highly weakened form (not strong enough to cause disease). While going through the child’s gut, it generates an antibody response in the child and the body remembers this virus and if it is ever exposed to the wild virus, it immediately produces appropriate antibodies and kills the virus.

The benefit of the oral polio vaccine is two fold. It protects the child to whom it is given and at the same time, by circulating in the environment and crowding out the naturally occurring disease causing virus and also by entering the gut of the unimmunized children, it confers universal immunity whereas the injectable form only protects the child to whom it is given. It is our social duty to help eradicate this dreaded disease from the face of this earth (just like we did with smallpox).

I have given all pulse polio doses to my children when they were young and I strongly exhort you to do the same.

Why should I give multiple doses of oral polio vaccine to my child?

Multiple oral doses are given to ensure the spread of the weakened virus to each and every individual. Each pulse polio campaign widens the immunized populated so that eventually all individuals will be vaccinated. This has been tested time and again in various countries in the world and only then have they achieved polio free status.

Multiple polio doses do not cause side-effects. Only 1 in 2,4 million children who receive oral polio vaccine go on to develop disease due to the vaccine itself. If your child has already had injectable vaccine then the chance of getting this disease is zero.

However, if your child is receiving oral polio instead of injectable and the dates of the pulse polio vaccination and your child’s scheduled dose are close to each other, then do contact your doctor as to whether you can skip one of the two.

My child has been sick. Do I need to postpone his polio immunization?

If the child has fever or diarrhea when the injectable shot is scheduled, it is best to postpone it till the child is better. However, oral polio vaccine can still be given, even though the child is ill at the time of administration.