Use of more potent polio vaccine planned in India

New Delhi: India will soon introduce the bivalent oral polio vaccine (BoPV), which will protect children against two dangerous strains of the deadly paralysing disease, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said here on Saturday.

"The government will very soon introduce bivalent oral polio vaccine to attack the type 1 and type 3 viruses. It will help us to deal with the fresh outbreak of type 3 virus," Azad said after administering polio drops to street children during a special polio drive.

He said BoPV plays an important role in rapidly eliminating type 3 virus and sustaining high level of immunity against type 1.

Type 1 is the most dangerous form as it can cause huge outbreaks and travel long distances and causes paralysis in one out of every 200 children compared to type 3, which causes paralysis in one out of every 1,000 infections.

Type 1 accounted for 95 per cent of polio cases in the country till 2006. But now, children in India are being afflicted by both type 1 and 3 strains.

"Introduction of bivalent vaccine is likely to improve the situation a great deal," Azad said.

This year, so far 568 polio cases have been reported as compared to 559 in 2008. In 2007, 874 cases were reported. What is worrying is the growing number of type 3 cases.

Western Uttar Pradesh, considered to be the hub of polio in the country, is witnessing a sharp rise in type 3 cases — 427 cases out of the total 454 cases.

The same is being seen in Bihar where of the total of 103 cases, 68 are type 3.

The use of BoPV was also recommended by the India Advisory Group in Polio Eradication