U.S. Support Essential to Ambitious Global Introduction of Inactivated Polio Vaccine

Earlier this fall, Nepal became the first low-income country to introduce the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) into its immunization system. Many more countries will have to follow suit to meet the ambitious deadlines laid out in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative’s Polio Eradication & Endgame Strategic Plan 2013–2018. The plan calls for global introduction of at least one dose of IPV into routine childhood immunization schedules followed by eventual withdrawal of the widely used oral polio vaccine (OPV). Currently, 75 mostly high- and middle-income countries use the injectable IPV in their immunization systems, leaving 119 that need to do so by the end of 2015 to keep with the plan’s schedule.

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Nellie Bristol
Senior Associate (Non-resident), Global Health Policy Center