Rawalpindi: The district health department is finalising arrangements for launching a nine-day anti-polio drive in high-risk areas of the district during which instead of Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV), Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) would be administered for the first time to children between the age of four months and 23 months.
The IPV which is much expensive vaccine is going to be used for the first time in the Punjab province, though in other provinces of the country the IPV campaigns have already been launched, said District Health Officer Dr. Rafiq Ahmed while talking to ‘The News’.
He said that it is observed that administration of OPV and IPV combined increases immunity in blood against polio to a greater extent and is three-times more effective than the administration of OPV alone in preventing polio. The administration of IPV is being made part of routine Expanded Programme on Immunisation from July 1 this year, he said.
The IPV that was developed in 1955 by Dr Jonas Salk is given by intramuscular injection and needs to be administered by a trained health worker. Studies reveal that the IPV which consists of inactivated (killed) poliovirus strains of all three poliovirus types produces antibodies in the blood to all three types of poliovirus. In the event of infection, these antibodies prevent the spread of the virus to the central nervous system and protect against paralysis.
The up-coming nine-day IPV campaign would be launched in as many as 28 high-risk union councils of the district from June 8 to June 16, said Dr. Rafiq. He said that the up-coming IPV drive is a not a door-to-door campaign rather the health department would establish 117 fixed points for administration of IPV to children between the age of four months and 23 months.
He, however, added that during the campaign, the teams of health department would go door-to-door for convincing parents to bring their children to the vaccination points.
It is important that
IPV is over five times more expensive than oral polio vaccine, however, it triggers an excellent protective immune response in most people. Another advantage of IPV administration is that it is not a ‘live’ vaccine, therefore, it carries no risk of vaccine-associated polio paralysis.
Studies reveal that the IPV is one of the safest vaccines in use and no serious systemic adverse reactions have been shown to follow vaccination. Also it is highly effective in preventing paralytic disease caused by all three types of poliovirus.
It is worth mentioning here that IPV does not stop transmission of the virus, therefore, oral polio vaccine is used wherever a polio outbreak needs to be contained, even in countries which rely exclusively on IPV for their routine immunisation programme.
For the up-coming IPV campaign, a total of 64,495 children have been set as target in the high-risk union councils of the district on the subject of prevalence of poliovirus, said Dr. Rafiq. He added that the campaign is being launched in city areas, areas in cantonment boards, peripheries and six union councils of Taxila.