ISLAMABAD: As part of a global strategy, all stakeholders working for eradicating polio from the country decided on Tuesday to declare April 25, 2016, as “National Switchover Day” from trivalent Oral Polio Vaccine (tOPV) to bivalent Oral Polio Vaccine (bOPV) in routine immunisation.

By that date all vaccines having three types of polioviruses will be destroyed. Moreover, Type II virus will also be destroyed in all laboratories to eliminate the chances of its spread again.

Talking to Dawn, the head of National Emergency Operation Cell (EOC) on Polio, Dr Rana Safdar, said that at present there were three types of polioviruses in the world – Type I, II and III.

“Although these three viruses spread polio, they are different species and slightly different in nature. Polio cases due to Type II virus have not been reported from anywhere in the world for many years, but at the moment in tOPV live but weak viruses of all three types are being given to children,” he said.

April 25 to be a ‘National Switchover Day’ from tOPV to bOPV during routine immunisation

He said that as long as live Type II virus was used in the vaccine there was a chance of again spreading polio across the world. Therefore, he added, it had been decided that by April 25 next year not only all vaccines having all the three viruses would be destroyed but Type II virus would also be destroyed in laboratories, including those of the World Health Organisation.

“In Pakistan bOPV will be introduced in which only Type I and III live viruses will be used. The efficacy of bOPV will be five times that of tOPV because there will be only two viruses in the vaccine,” he said.

Dr Safdar said that in second phase, Type III virus would be removed from the vaccine because not a single case of this virus had been reported from anywhere in the world during the past two years. In Pakistan, no case of Type III has been reported since 2012.

“According to global end game strategy, by 2020 OPV will be completely stopped and only Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV), which is a dead virus, will be used all over the world,” he said.

The Minister for National Health Services, Saira Afzal Tarar, told Dawn that it would be ensured that all vaccines having Type II virus were destroyed by April 25 next year and no one would be allowed to keep the virus in laboratories for even research purposes as per standard operating procedure.

“We will not have to pay more for the new vaccine because internationally arrangements are made by donors,” she added.

Ms Tarar said she had endorsed the national plan of switching from tOPV to bOPV in routine immunisation at a meeting held on Tuesday. “We are moving one step ahead in unison with the global strategy for polio eradication,” she said.

Published in Dawn, September 30th , 2015

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