Jun 25, 2023 10:40 PM
https://www.statnews.com/2023/06/23/poli...e-vaccine/
INTRO: Polio eradication is a delicate dance. And one of the biggest challenges facing the people trying to choreograph its final steps is how to phase out use of oral polio vaccines.
The oral vaccines have brought the paralyzing viruses to the brink of annihilation; so far this year there have only been six cases detected, five in Afghanistan and one in Pakistan. But a feature of the oral vaccines — that the live viruses in them can spread and on rare occasions regain the power to paralyze — means that while they are in use, the world will never be free of polio.
A decision that will be made next week may make it easier to take the final steps of the eradication endgame. The governing board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance is expected to approve a new vaccine that would increase the number of children around the world who are protected against the worst of what polioviruses can do, in the process making the eventual withdrawal of oral polio vaccines less dangerous.
The Gavi board will vote on a proposal to offer the countries it helps a combination product that includes inactivated polio vaccine. IPV, as it is known, does not contain live viruses and cannot create the problem seen with the oral vaccines.
The United States has used IPV exclusively since 2000, and Gavi has been helping qualifying countries to buy IPV since 2013. But this would be the first time it would offer assistance in purchasing polio vaccine in a combination format that would protect children against hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenzae, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis and all three types of polioviruses. It will be a six-in-one vaccine, a hexavalent in the vernacular of vaccines.
Roland Sutter, who has been working on polio eradication for decades, thinks this will be an important step. The addition of this six-in-one vaccine to Gavi’s portfolio “is probably the best thing … since sliced bread,” he told STAT.
If approved by the Gavi board, the vaccine could start to become available to countries that choose to use it next year... (MORE - details)
INTRO: Polio eradication is a delicate dance. And one of the biggest challenges facing the people trying to choreograph its final steps is how to phase out use of oral polio vaccines.
The oral vaccines have brought the paralyzing viruses to the brink of annihilation; so far this year there have only been six cases detected, five in Afghanistan and one in Pakistan. But a feature of the oral vaccines — that the live viruses in them can spread and on rare occasions regain the power to paralyze — means that while they are in use, the world will never be free of polio.
A decision that will be made next week may make it easier to take the final steps of the eradication endgame. The governing board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance is expected to approve a new vaccine that would increase the number of children around the world who are protected against the worst of what polioviruses can do, in the process making the eventual withdrawal of oral polio vaccines less dangerous.
The Gavi board will vote on a proposal to offer the countries it helps a combination product that includes inactivated polio vaccine. IPV, as it is known, does not contain live viruses and cannot create the problem seen with the oral vaccines.
The United States has used IPV exclusively since 2000, and Gavi has been helping qualifying countries to buy IPV since 2013. But this would be the first time it would offer assistance in purchasing polio vaccine in a combination format that would protect children against hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenzae, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis and all three types of polioviruses. It will be a six-in-one vaccine, a hexavalent in the vernacular of vaccines.
Roland Sutter, who has been working on polio eradication for decades, thinks this will be an important step. The addition of this six-in-one vaccine to Gavi’s portfolio “is probably the best thing … since sliced bread,” he told STAT.
If approved by the Gavi board, the vaccine could start to become available to countries that choose to use it next year... (MORE - details)
