New Polio Vaccine Being Deployed in Afghanistan

Dec 17th, 2009 11:30 AM UTC
By Virginia Simmons

A new polio vaccine called the “bivalent oral polio vaccine”, or “bOPV” is being used for the first time on a large scale this week.

This new vaccine is unique because it vaccinates against both major types of polio at once.

From Reuters:

“Some 2.8 million children under the age of five are being inoculated in a three-day campaign which began on Tuesday in the southern and eastern regions of Afghanistan…

The WHO expects the oral vaccine to be “a critical new tool” in the global eradication initiative and intends to use it on tens of millions of children in India and Nigeria by late January, spokesman Rod Curtis said.

“What we have developed with this new bivalent vaccine is the ability to go into a country and to tackle both types of circulating polio virus at once,” he told a news briefing.”

More on this major 3-day vaccination campaign to come.

TAGS: Policy News, Polio