Polio Vaccines 2023

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says polio is vaccine-preventable. However, most countries recommend children get vaccinated against polio early in life. And 'anyone planning to travel internationally should confirm they are fully vaccinated against polio disease before visiting at-risk countries,' says the World Health Organization (WHO) International Travel and Health vaccine recommendations.

The WHO's vaccine committee says residents (and visitors for more than four weeks) from infected areas should receive an additional dose of oral polio vaccine (OPV) or inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) within four weeks to 12 months of travel. And since 2022, the WHO has recommended the nOPV2 vaccine when responding to circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 outbreaks in Africa.

WHO Prequalified Polio Vaccines 2023

nOPV2 Polio vaccine is derived from the live, infectious virus. The nOPV2 vaccine is unavailable in the U.S., but about 600 million doses have been administered across 28 countries since 2022.

Eupolio is the first attenuated Sabin-IPV to obtain WHO prequalification. The main advantage is a lower biosafety risk.

SINOVAC's sIPV polio vaccine was WHO-approved for children to prevent poliomyelitis from infection of types I, II, and III polioviruses in June 2022. sIPV is available for United Nations agencies to purchase.

Polio Vaccinations U.K.

The U.K. Health Services Agency (UKHSA) confirmed an Inactivated Polio Vaccine Booster campaign was launched in London targeting children aged 1 to 9 on September 29, 2022. The polio vaccine is part of the NHS childhood vaccination schedule. It's given when children are 8, 12, and 16 weeks old as part of the 6-in-1 vaccine; then at three years and four months old as part of the 4-in-1 (DTaP/IPV) pre-school booster, and at 14 years old as part of the 3-in-1 (Td/IPV) teenage booster. In the U.K., children need all these vaccinations to be fully vaccinated against polio.

Polio Vaccinations Israel

In March 2023, the state of New York recommended travelers to Israel ensure they are fully vaccinated against polio. The Israeli Ministry of Health launched Operation 2-Drops in April 2022, offering additional polio vaccinations for about two million children aged six weeks until 17 years. However, as of March 2023, about 150,000 children in Isreal remain unvaccinated against poliovirus.

Polio Vaccinations in the Americas

And the Pan America Health Organization (PAHO) confirmed on September 2022 that polio vaccination coverage has fallen below 80% in nearly all of South America, and 12 countries (Brazil) in the region are at High or Very High risk of experiencing a polio outbreak.

Polio Vaccinations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

The 15 polio outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 2017–early 2021 were successfully controlled with numerous immunization activities (SIAs) using monovalent OPV Sabin-strain serotype 2 (mOPV2). However, suboptimal mOPV2 vaccination coverage appears to have seeded the cVDPV2 emergences detected from 2018 through 2021. Therefore, using the novel OPV serotype 2 (nOPV2), designed to have greater genetic stability than mOPV2, should help DRC's efforts in controlling the more recent cVDPV2 outbreaks with a much lower risk of further seeding VDPV2 emergence.

Polio Vaccines U.S.

The U.S. CDC updated the pediatric and adult polio vaccination schedules in February 2023.

Polio Outbreaks 2023

During 2023, various countries have confirmed polio outbreaks.

Note: This content has been aggregated from the CDC, WHO, and pharmaceutical vaccine producers and reviewed by healthcare providers, such as Dr. Bob Carlson.