Polio Vaccinations

[waltekar]

Does anyone know what the difference is between an 'Inactivated' and an 'B OPV' Polio Vaccination please?

Tks.

[PringlesQueen]

Both are the vaccines against polio.
The OPV (oral polio vaccine which is 'live') used to be given routinely - remember being given it at school with a lump of sugar?
The World Health Organisation have now decreed that the OPV will only be given if there is an outbreak of the polio disease.
The new routine polio vaccine is in the form of an injection and is inactivated (ie 'dead'). Your GP will offer this as the vaccination against polio, but, it is only available in the UK combined with diphtheria and tetanus vaccine (ie dip/tet/polio).

[scubadiver]

The reason that the switch was made from "live" to "inactivated" is that there is a theoretical risk of contracting a mild form of polio using the live vaccine. Some children develop VAPP (vaccine associated paralytic polio) or "floppy baby" syndrome, which can have severe consequences. Because there is no circulating polio in Europe (indeed in most of the world), it was deemed by the WHO to be unethical to expose vaccinees to this theoretical risk. Hence the switch to inactivated polio, in contries where the virus has been eradicated.

[waltekar]

Many thanks to squsalminney and scubadiver - you have both been most helpful.