Potent Questions About India's Polio Vaccine

摘要

In their report "new strategies for the elimination of polio from India" (17 November 2006, p. 1150), N. Grassly et al. discuss the use of trivalent oral polio vaccine (OPV) in India for supplementary immunizations against type 1 poliovirus. During the past 5 years, OPV efficacy in relation to confirmed cases of type 1 paralytic poliovirus and number of doses (Grassly et al.'s Fig. 3) suggests that poor-quality vaccine lots are being dispensed during primary and supplementary immunization. The chances of any recipient receiving adequate immunization against three poliovirus serotypes depend on the quality of OPV available locally. Suboptimal immunizing doses or missed immunizations would lead to individuals who do not respond to multiple OPV doses.