Several of my patients have been asking me about the recently made available vaccines in the Indian market, and one of them is the Injectable Polio vaccine or the I.P.V. So what is it, really?
Well, in India, the government is currently struggling with the final stages of eradicating poliomyelitis, a crippling disease that now occurs in less than ten countries all over the world. Although the incidence is falling every year, we are still having to conduct special rounds of pulse polio immunisation and mop-ups to take care of the cases of poliomyelitis that are still being diagnosed - mostly from the state of U.P.
Having said that, today, we give 2 drops of the Oral Polio Vaccine or the OPV to all the children. However, this is the case only with the few countries where cases of polio are still being diagnosed. In all the other countries of the world, whether from the Western world or the third world, the vaccine that is administered is the more effective and less problematic IPV.
It is more effective because giving three shots of this vaccine to all children below the age of one year and a booster each at 18 months and 5 years will probably wipe out poliomyelitis sooner than the oral vaccine will (or can!)
I currently give IPV only after a one-to-one consultation with the relatives of the patient. In such cases, the routine doses of OPV can be avoided.
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