For the first time since April of 1955, recipients of poliovirus vaccine will no longer receive all three serotypes. This past Sunday the World Health Organization orchestrated a synchronized switch from trivalent to bivalent oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) in 150 countries. The reason for the switch is clear: type 2 poliovirus was declared eradicated last year, and the …
From trivalent to bivalent oral poliovirus vaccine Read More »
In four months, 155 countries will together switch from using trivalent to bivalent oral poliovirus vaccine. Will this change lead to more cases of poliomyelitis? There are three serotypes of poliovirus, each of which can cause paralytic poliomyelitis. The Sabin oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV), which has been used globally by WHO in the eradication effort, is …
The switch from trivalent to bivalent oral poliovirus vaccine: Will it lead to polio? Read More »
On episode #371 of the science show This Week in Virology, the TWiVologists discuss the finding of a second transmissible cancer in Tasmanian devils, and development of new poliovirus strains for the production of inactivated vaccine in the post-eradication era. You can find TWiV #371 at www.microbe.tv/twiv.
I have worked on poliovirus for over thirty-six years, first as a posdoctoral fellow with David Baltimore in 1979, and then in my laboratory at Columbia University. The end of that research commences this year with the destruction of my stocks of polioviruses. In 2015 there were 70 reported cases of poliomyelitis caused by wild …
The Sabin infectious, attenuated poliovirus vaccines are known to cause vaccine-associated paralysis in a small number of recipients. In contrast, the Salk inactivated vaccine does not cause poliomyelitis. Why are the Sabin vaccines still used globally? The answer to this question requires a brief visit to the history of poliovirus vaccines. The inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) developed by …
The polio eradication and endgame strategic plan announced by the World Health Organization in 2014 includes at least one dose of inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV). Since 1988, when WHO announced the polio eradication plan, it had relied exclusively on the use of oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV). The rationale for including a dose of IPV was …
An unexpected benefit of inactivated poliovirus vaccine Read More »
