KOZHIKODE: The battle against polio is set to take a new turn in the state. The Health Department will switch to bivalent oral polio vaccine (OPV) from the presently administered trivalent OPV by the end of April, 2016. With this, type 2 component (OPV2) will be removed from the vaccine.
“Of the three serotypes of the virus, serotype 2 has been completely eradicated in the country, while the other two serotypes (1 and 3) still persist. Though the serotype 2 was eradicated years ago, we still continue to administer trivalent OPV. From April 25, trivalent OPV won’t be given to children,” said NRHM Kozhikode district coordinator Dr A Baburaj.
The department has started to collect data on the current stock of trivalent OPV and asked the health officers to bring back the vaccine bottles to the district health department authorities before April 24.
According to Reproductive Child Health (RCH) programme officer Dr Sarala Nair, the existing stock in the primary and community health centres would be collected and destroyed.