Articles
January 20, 2025

Is Polio Vaccine Required Even Today?

Is Polio Vaccine Required Even Today?

Polio, caused by Poliovirus, is a disease that has affected millions of children, and can be prevented by Polio Vaccine. It can lead to paralysis, or even death in severe cases. Sounds dangerous, right? Especially since 1988 mein 3,50,000 global cases the polio ke! Polio specially affects children below the age of 5 and was a cause of major concern before the Polio vaccine was invented by Dr. Jonas Salk in 1955.

There are two types of polio vaccines: the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV), jo ki injection ke through di jaati hai and the oral polio vaccine (OPV) , the famous polio drops.

IAP strongly recommends yeh dono vaccines ka combination to combat against polio.

Schedule Recommendations: The IAP recommends that children receive multiple doses of the polio vaccine:

1. Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV)

  • At birth: OPV-0 (zero dose)
  • Whenever the Pulse Polio drive takes place.

2. Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV)

  • 6 weeks: First dose of IPV
  • 10 weeks: Second dose of IPV
  • 14 weeks: IPV dose at 14 weeks

Polio vaccine has succeeded in bringing down polio cases by 99%. It is 99%-100% effective after complete dosages. According to WHO more than 20 million people who would have otherwise been paralyzed by polio are able to walk today because of vaccination efforts, especially India's Pulse Polio drive. In 2014, India was declared polio free.

Then why do we still need to get vaccinated if the world is nearly polio free?

I think being a generation who just witnessed Covid, we know how one single infected person is enough to spread a disease back to the world. Isiliye, let’s be smart and vaccinate zaroor karaye apne kids ko!

Sources-

  1. IAP
  2. WHO