FDA Expands PMC's Polio Vaccine Use

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved the expanded use ofPasteur Merieux Connaught's enhanced, inactivated poliovirus vaccine (eIPV), called IPOL, to include routine vaccination as part of a sequential schedule for US children.

The expanded-use approval follows recommendations published by the Centers for Disease Control back in January. The CDC aims to reduce the incidence of disease currently associated with use of the oral live-virus polio vaccine; as a consequence of the use of OPV, eight to 10 new polio cases are reported every year in the USA.

Following two years of study, the guidelines regarding administration of the polio vaccine were changed for the first time since 1961. The CDC now recommends that children receive the vaccine in a combination of inactivated and live oral formulations. Currently most children receive four doses of oral vaccine, and the addition of injectable inactivated form to the schedule is expected to halve the risk of contracting polio from the oral vaccine.