The government launched on Monday an injectable polio vaccine – Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) – which will be administered in addition to oral polio drops in the routine immunisation programme.

It will be an important step in the Polio Endgame Strategy, the government said.

Ongoing battle

Launching the vaccine here, Health Minister JP Nadda said that though India was certified polio-free on March 27, 2014, the battle against the disease was not over yet.

“The virus is still active in neighbouring Pakistan and Afghanistan. So the risk of re-emergence of the disease remains,” he added.

Nadda said that in the first phase, the vaccine would be introduced in six States — Assam, Gujarat, Punjab, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

“IPV injection will be given to children aged below one year along with the third dose of the oral polio vaccine (OPV) at the routine immunisation sessions free of cost,” he said, adding that new evidences clearly show that IPV and OPV together provide double protection against polio.

‘Mission Indradhanush’

The Health Minister said that apart from introduction of new vaccines, such as Pentavalent and IPV, the government was ensuring that every child in the country was benefitted by ‘Mission Indradhanush’, which had identified focus districts across the country.

Louis-Georges Arsenault, Unicef Representative for India, commended the strengthening of India’s immunisation programme by introduction of IPV and termed this as a “monumental step”.

Source: http://freehealthcaremag.com/?p=330