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How Polio Vaccine Is Made

Monovalent Oral Poliovirus Vaccine

The Backstory: The rollout of the polio vaccine | KVUE

Prior to the development of tOPV, monovalent OPVs were developed in the early 1950s, but largely dropped out of use upon the adoption of tOPV. It was not available at the time of the founding of GPEI in 1988. Monovalent oral polio vaccines confer immunity to just one of the three serotypes of OPV. They are more successful in conferring immunity to the serotype targeted than tOPV, but do not provide protection to the other two types.

Monovalent OPVs for type 1 and type 3 poliovirus were licensed again in 2005, thanks to successful action taken by the GPEI. They elicit the best immune response against the serotype they target of all the vaccines.

Monovalent OPV type 2 has been stockpiled in the event of a cVDPV2 outbreak.

What Is A Vaccine

A vaccine-derived poliovirus is a strain related to the weakened live poliovirus contained in oral polio vaccine . If allowed to circulate in under- or unimmunized populations for long enough, or replicate in an immunodeficient individual, the weakened virus can revert to a form that causes illness and paralysis.

OPV is a safe and effective vaccine that contains a combination of one, two, or three strains of live, weakened poliovirus, and is given in the form of oral drops. OPV has been instrumental in eradicating wild polioviruses around the world, including in the United States, because it stops the spread of the virus by inducing immunity in the gut. VDPVs emerge when not enough people are vaccinated against polio, and the weakened strain of the poliovirus from OPV spreads among under-immunized populations.

The United States has used inactivated poliovirus vaccine exclusively since 2000. IPV is given as an injection in the leg or arm, depending on the persons age and protects against paralytic disease caused by any type of poliovirus, including VDPV.

Koprowski Polio Vaccine Tests

So when was the polio vaccine invented?

In the late 1940s, Dr. Hilary Koprowski of Lederle Laboratories in Philadelphia successfully administered a vaccine for type 2 poliovirus. He chose to test it on himself and his assistant after trying it on chimpanzees. They both drank the vaccine and observed no adverse effects.

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Polio Vaccine History: Timeline Of Poliomyelitis Discovery And Vaccine Invention

Polio is a serious viral infection that was globally prevalent before the 1980s. Thankfully, its groundbreaking vaccine essentially eradicated it in most parts of the world. Join Flo as we explore the history of polio as well as the scientists who discovered the polio vaccine.

Who Invented The Polio Vaccine

Our chance to defeat polio once and for all

The invention of the polio vaccine is one of the most notable inventions in the medical field. Its invention led to a great breakthrough in the fight against polio which was one of the leading causes of deformities and deaths in the world. Polio is known to paralyze the limbs of individuals who are not vaccinated against it. The individuals are left with an inability to walk and conduct vigorous physical activities. In extreme cases, the victims of the disease end up dying.

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Bivalent Oral Poliovirus Vaccine

Following April 2016, the trivalent oral poliovirus vaccine was replaced with the bivalent oral poliovirus vaccine in routine immunization around the world. Bivalent OPV contains only attenuated virus of serotypes 1 and 3, in the same number as in the trivalent vaccine.

Bivalent OPV elicits a better immune response against poliovirus types 1 and 3 than trivalent OPV, but does not give immunity against serotype 2. As well as in routine immunization, bOPV will be used for outbreak response against poliovirus types 1 and 3 outbreaks.

Use Of Fetal Tissue In Vaccine Development

Find sources: “Use of fetal tissue in vaccine development” news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR

The use of fetal tissue in vaccine development is the practice of researching, developing, and producing vaccines through growing viruses in cultured cells that were originally derived from human fetal tissue. Since the cell strains in use originate from abortions, there has been opposition to the practice and the resulting vaccines on religious and moral grounds.

The vaccines do not contain any of the original fetal tissue or cells or cells derived from fetal materials. Although the vaccine materials are purified from cell debris, traces of human DNA fragments remain. The cell lines continue to replicate on their own and no further sources of fetal cells are needed.

The Catholic Church has encouraged its members to use alternative vaccines, produced without human cell lines, if possible. However, the Vatican has clarified that “all vaccinations recognized as clinically safe and effective can be used in good conscience, with the certain knowledge that the use of such vaccines does not constitute formal cooperation with the abortion”.

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How The Polio Vaccine Virus Occasionally Becomes Dangerous

Genetic study of the live vaccine could help efforts toward eradication.

While the world reels from the spread of SARS-CoV2, the new coronavirus behind COVID-19, a much older and previously feared scourgepoliovirusis close to being completely eradicated. The polio vaccines, developed by Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin in the mid-1950s, heralded the elimination of polio from the U.S., saving countless children from sudden paralysis and death. In the developing world, however, outbreaks of poliovirus still occur sporadically, an ironic consequence of the polio vaccine itself.

The polio vaccine comes in two types: the Salk vaccine, made with a killed virus and the Sabin vaccine, made with a live but weakened, or attenuated, virus. The Sabin vaccine has several advantages for use in the developing world, including the fact that it does not need to be kept cold, and as an oral vaccine, it does not require needles. However, because it contains a live, albeit weakened polio virus, that virus is able to evolve into more virulent forms and cause outbreaks months to years following a vaccination campaign.

In a new paper, Adam Lauring, M.D., Ph.D., of the department of microbiology & immunology and the division of infectious disease and a collaborative team describe an enterprising study that allowed them to view the evolution of the vaccine virus into a more dangerous form in real time.

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Do The Benefits Of The Inactivated Polio Vaccine Outweigh Its Risks

Oral polio vaccine and circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV)

Natural polio has been eliminated from the United States since 1979. However, polio has not been eliminated from the rest of the world. Efforts to eradicate polio have proven challenging. Polio has never been successfully eliminated from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria. Until the spread of natural poliovirus is stopped in these countries, all countries remain at risk for the return of polio. Groups dedicated to eradicating polio continue to work toward elimination. To follow their progress, check www.polioeradication.org.

Since travel makes the world a much smaller place, a recurrence of polio is merely a plane ride away. In countries with high immunization rates, this is less likely, but the potential for spread of polio exists when people are not immunized. Because IPV has no serious side effects, the benefits of the vaccine clearly outweigh its risks.

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Who Should Get The Opv

The OPV is no longer used in the United States except in certain cases. OPV doses may be given 4 to 8 weeks apart to the following:

  • Children who have not received any polio vaccine and who are traveling to areas with a high risk of polio
  • Large group vaccination programs to control current polio sickness or outbreak in an area
  • People with a life-threatening allergy to IPV

How Polio Returned To The United States

Officials are still determining how the virus moved from one location to another and where it first occurred.

Top: The polio virus has a coat of protein surrounding a RNA genetic material in its core. Visual: Roger Harris/Science Photo Library via Getty

About a month ago, British health authorities announced theyd found evidence suggesting local spread of polio in London.

It was a jolt, to be sure. The country was declared polio-free in 2003.

But at least no one had turned up sick. The proof came from routine tests of sewage samples, which can alert health officials that a virus is circulating and allow them to intervene quickly. Based on genetic analysis of those samples, officials in the United Kingdom moved to protect the citys children by reaching out to families with kids under 5 who hadnt been fully vaccinated.

This story was originally published by ProPublica and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Polios first appearance in almost a decade in the U.S., confirmed in late July by health officials in New York, would play out quite differently.

In the U.S., public health agencies generally dont test sewage for polio. Instead, they wait for people to show up sick in doctors offices or hospitals a reactive strategy that can give this stealthy virus more time to circulate silently through the community before it is detected.

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Samples Of The Virus Found In Wastewater Suggest The Highly Contagious Virus May Be Spreading In The Community Officials Urge Vaccination

This 2014 illustration made available by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention depicts a polio virus particle. On Thursday, July 21, 2022, New York health officials reported a polio case, the first in the U.S. in nearly a decade.

Sarah Poser, Meredith Boyter Newlove/CDC via Associated Press

Polio has been found in wastewater in New York, suggesting community spread. And health officials are urging New Yorkers to be sure that they are all current on vaccination against the potentially deadly virus.

The New York Department of Health announcement said that after identifying polio in an unvaccinated Rockland County resident last month, the state started monitoring wastewater. It found polio virus in both Rockland and Orange County samples taken at different times and locations in June and July.

Based on earlier polio outbreaks, New Yorkers should know that for every one case of paralytic polio observed, there may be hundreds of other people infected, Dr. Mary T. Bassett, the states health commissioner, said in a statement.

Health officials said the identified samples may be the tip of the iceberg.

Early Polio Vaccine Projects

Tainted Cutter polio vaccine killed and paralyzed children in 1955 ...

Unfortunately, initial trials were poorly executed and caused great harm to those involved. Teams of researchers in New York and Philadelphia both administered vaccines containing active poliovirus to tens of thousands of living subjects, including children and chimpanzees. Many subjects became severely ill or paralyzed, experienced allergic reactions, and even died of polio.

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How Do I Protect Myself From Polio Are Polio Vaccines Still Required In The Us

The CDC recommends that people should start getting vaccinated against polio starting as infants. The organization says people should be administered four shots starting at 2 months old, 4 months old, 6 through 18 months old and 4 through 6 years old.

Most adults do not need the polio vaccine because they were vaccinated as children. But there are some cases, according to the CDC, where some adults who are at-risk should consider getting vaccinated:

  • If you are traveling to a foreign country with high risk of polio transmission
  • You work in a laboratory and are handling specimens that contain the poliovirus
  • You are a healthcare worker treating patients who might have polio, or you have close contact with someone who was infected with the poliovirus

The inactivated polio vaccine is the only type of polio vaccine that is administered in the U.S.

Who Created The Polio Vaccine

Reference article: Facts about polio and the development of the poliovirus vaccines.

In the early 1950s, two prominent medical researchers each found a way to protect the world from poliomyelitis, the paralysis-causing disease commonly known as polio. The vaccines created by Dr. Jonas Salk and Dr. Albert Sabin resulted in the near-global eradication of polio. Here’s how they did it.

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Why Is Polio Reemerging After Being Eradicated

In the 1950s, polio became a global concern. In 1955, the inactivated polio vaccines were developed and in 1962, the oral poliovirus vaccines were invented.

In 1988, the WHO, United Nations International Childrens Emergency Fund , and Rotary Foundation launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative , with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as the major funding institute. Primarily through global distribution of polio vaccines in conjunction with education and prevention campaigns, GPEI hoped to eradicate polio completely. The WHO has since granted certificates to many countries and regions to prove that they have eradicated polio.

The United States eradicated polio in 1979, and the Americas were the first region in the world to become certified polio-free in 1994. Afterwards, the Western Pacific Region, Europe, Southeast Asia, and Africa were certified polio-free in 2000, 2002, 2014, and 2020, respectively.

Furthermore, the WHOs polio-free certification only targets the wildtype strains of the poliovirus. In 2016, the number of polio cases, which dropped to its lowest in decades, saw a sudden increase. And this time, the poliovirus strains that caused the outbreak were related to the vaccines.

Why Do We Use The Polio Shot And Not The Oral Polio Vaccine

WHO: The Two Polio Vaccines

In about 1 of every 2.4 million recipients, the live, weakened virus contained in the oral polio vaccine causes paralysis. The shot does not have this same side effect because, unlike the oral version, the shot contains killed virus that cannot replicate and, therefore, cannot cause paralysis.

Between 1961 and 1996, children in the United States received four doses of the oral vaccine. This changed beginning in 1997 and continued throughout 1999 when children typically received two doses of the shot followed by two doses of the oral vaccine. Since that time, infants have received four doses of the shot.

Many other countries continue to use the oral polio vaccine because it is more economical and easier to administer, allowing more people to get the vaccine. It also provides better community immunity.

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Position Of The Catholic Church

The Catholic Church is opposed to abortion. Nevertheless, the Pontifical Academy for Life, concluded in 2005 that parents may allow their children to receive vaccines made from fetal tissue if no alternative exists and there is a grave health risk. Consumers were urged to “oppose by all means the vaccines which do not yet have morally acceptable alternatives, creating pressure so that alternative vaccines are prepared, which are not connected with the abortion of a human fetus”. This academy also called for the development of new vaccines that can be made by other means. In 2017, the Pontifical Academy for Life stated that “clinically recommended vaccinations can be used with a clear conscience and that the use of such vaccines does not signify some sort of cooperation with voluntary abortion”.

Allergic Reaction To The Vaccine

Inactivated polio vaccine can cause an allergic reaction in a few people since the vaccine contains trace amounts of antibiotics, streptomycin, polymyxin B, and neomycin. It should not be given to anyone who has an allergic reaction to these medicines. Signs and symptoms of an allergic reaction, which usually appear within minutes or a few hours after receiving the injected vaccine, include breathing difficulties, weakness, hoarseness or wheezing, heart rate fluctuations, skin rash and dizziness.

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Development Of Pv Vaccines

In 1935, Brodie tried an inactivated vaccine with 10% formalin suspension of PV taken from infected monkey spinal cord he tried it first on 20 monkeys, then on 3000 Californian children. The results were poor and additional human studies were never performed. In the same year, Kollmer tried a live attenuated virus consisting of a 4% suspension of PV from infected monkey spinal cord, treated with sodium ricinoleate. He used it on monkeys and then on several thousand children. The acute paralysis occurred in about 1/1000 vaccines shortly after administration and some cases were fatal.

The discovery that the various antigenic strains of PVs could be grouped into three distinct viral types and the propagation of the PV in vitro led to the development of the vaccines against poliomyelitis: the formalin-inactivated vaccine by Jonas Salk and the live-attenuated vaccines by Albert Sabin .

What Are The Polio Vaccination Requirements For Kids In New Jersey

Polio vaccine makers failing to make enough doses: WHO experts

In New Jersey, children entering a daycare program or preschool must have a minimum of three doses of a polio vaccine by the time they turn 18 months old, according to the NJ Department of Health.

For kindergarten or first grade, children must have three to four doses of a polio vaccine. For second grade or higher, children must have a minimum of three doses.

However, students 18 years of age and older are exempt from this requirement.

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What Is The Oral Polio Vaccine

The oral polio vaccine is given to help prevent polio. Polio is a disease caused by a virus. The virus damages your brain and spinal cord. This can lead to paralysis or death. The virus is spread through direct contact, or you can inhale it. The OPV is given as drops in the mouth. The OPV has been replaced by the inactivated polio vaccine in the United States.

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