Polio vaccination regimen shift to IPV followed by OPV instead of OPV alone debated at IoM/CDC conference.

Executive Summary

POLIO IMMUNIZATION WITH INACTIVATED AND LIVE VACCINES SHOULD REPLACE OPV, Samuel Katz, MD, Duke University, said at a June 8 Institute of Medicine/Centers for Disease Control & Prevention workshop on polio vaccines in Washington, D.C. In arguing for the change, Katz cited the estimated eight to 10 annual U.S. cases of vaccine-associated paralytic polio (VAPP) in people who have taken oral polio vaccine, and the three-year absence of the wild strain of polio from the Western hemisphere. "We have to show that we accept the fact that in a polio-free nation in a polio-free hemisphere we cannot have eight to 10 individuals paralyzed every year when there are alternatives," Katz said.