A 20th century vaccine against polio could be brought back into use to help tackle the growing threat from the disease, researchers said today.
A study in India has found that the injected polio vaccine could act as a booster to the commonly used oral polio vaccine.
Polio has re-emerged as a threat, particularly as a result of the Syrian civil war and other conflicts.
The researchers say their findings challenge an accepted view that the injected vaccine would have limited impact on the gut – which is one of the ways the virus is transmitted between victims.
The study of 450 children in Vellore, India, showed that this was not true – and that the injected vaccine had an impact on the gut, acting as a booster.
The findings are reported in The Lancet.
Researcher Professor Nick Grassly, of Imperial College, London, UK, said: "Our findings show that an additional dose of the injected vaccine is more effective at boosting immunity against infection than the oral vaccine alone.
“This implies that the IPV could be used to boost immunity in people travelling from or to polio-infected countries, such as Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria.
"It could also replace some of the oral polio vaccine doses in immunisation campaigns to boost gut immunity, particularly in areas of poor sanitation.”
* The journal also reports promising results from trials of the first vaccine against dengue fever to reach an advanced stage of testing.
The trial involved more than 10,000 children in five Asian countries and suggested the vaccine halved the rate at which children contracted the disease.
John et al. Effect of a single inactivated poliovirus vaccine dose on intestinal immunity against poliovirus in children previously given oral vaccine: an open-label randomised controlled trial. Lancet 10 July 2014 D-14-02958R2 S0140-6736(14)60934-X [abstract]
Leave a Reply