Q: My daughter will be 5 years old this year and had to be given the final booster II of OPV and DPT. The previous doses of OPV had been given in India and then we moved to another country. Here, they only have an injectable version of the polio combined with DPT and Hib. Will this complete her schedule for vaccines or will this prove ineffective as the previous vaccine strains were OPV from India? Do I still need to give her the OPV, if and when we go back to India and by when? It looks unlikely that we will go back to India for the next 3 years? Apart from the usual OPV vaccines she has also received multiple doses of the pulse polio orally since birth.

A:As you are likely to be away for 3 years, it would be best to give her the injectable polio vaccine with the other vaccines, which would offer protection. By the time that you would return back, the child would be about 8 years of age and would not need OPV.