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Is injectable polio vaccine (IPV) more effective than oral polio vaccine (OPV)?

Q: My son aged 9 months is receiving the recommended doses of OPV so far but recently, I came to know that IPV is more effective than OPV, both in terms of immunological potency and side effects, such as vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis (VAPP). Should I go for IPV at this age and is IPV available in India? If yes, please tell me the vaccination schedule. And is the OPV being used by the Government of India in its Pulse Polio Programme a monovalent vaccine or a trivalent one?

A:It would be cleaner to stick to the same group of vaccination for polio at this age (OPV or IPV), as the protective efficacy of switching from OPV to IPV at this age (9 months) is not clear in our setting. Yes, IPV is available in the country, there is no risk of VAPP and it is quite expensive at the moment. The OPV being used by the Government currently is the trivalent one in an overwhelming majority of the country.

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