The Ministry of Public Health advises pediatricians and parents to administer three doses of IPV polio vaccine instead of one as part of the regular infant vaccination schedule. The medical authorities consider the new scheme is more effective in preventing transmission and consequently to keep the country polio-free.
The inactivated injected IPV vaccine, of which only one dose was previously applied, is recommended to protect children ages 2, 4 and 6 months against the disease, instead of the OPV, which will be administered as a booster at 18 months and 4 years of age.
The measure is contained in Resolution 0030 issued by the Ministry of Health on 13 September 2022. The decision follows recommendations of the Technical Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice, made up of experts from the countries of the Americas region (pulmonologists, infectious disease specialists, pediatricians). These same experts are advisors to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and to the Directive Council of the Ministers of Health of the Americas region.
Speaking on the issue for the Ministry of Public Health, Dr. Aida Lucía Vargas said that children with no vaccination history or who started their vaccination scheme late will also receive the five polio doses: three IPV and two OPV.
Dr. Aida Lucia Vargas recommended mothers, fathers and guardians to go with their children to the vaccination posts to ask for these and the other vaccines included in the children vaccination program, which are highly effective in preventing diseases.
She said that since 1985 there have been no cases of wild poliovirus in the country, and that in 1994 the region of the Americas became the first in the world to be declared free of the disease.
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Diario Libre
25 October 2022