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Vaccine-Derived Polio

Vaccine-Derived Polio:

A vaccine-derived polio case has been confirmed in a two-year-old child from Tikrikilla, Meghalaya. Health authorities clarified that this is not wild poliovirus but an infection seen in individuals with low immunity.

  • India’s polio-free status: India was declared polio-free by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2014, with the last wild poliovirus case reported in 2011.
  • The Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) contains a weakened form of the poliovirus, which stimulates an immune response.
    cVDPV development: On rare occasions, in under-immunized populations, the excreted vaccine virus can circulate, undergo genetic changes, and potentially revert to a form capable of causing paralysis.
  • This is known as circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV).
  • Since 2000, over 10 billion doses of OPV have been administered globally, resulting in 24 cVDPV outbreaks in 21 countries, with fewer than 760 cases.
  • To stop cVDPV transmission, WHO recommends multiple rounds of high-quality immunisation campaigns.
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