OPV vs IPV: Past and Future Choice of Vaccine in the Global Polio Eradication Program

摘要

With the world approaching the post-eradication phase of polio control, two questions have been raised: (1) should polio vaccination be stopped or continued after global certification of polio eradication, and (2) if vaccination is continued, what vaccine should be used. There has been no decisive answer to the first question. However, the possibility of a global switch from current oral polio vaccine (OPV) to inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) after global eradication of polio (the second question) is being debated. One of the barriers to such a switch is that the cost is thought to be prohibitively high for developing countries. This study estimates the incremental cost of a vaccine switch in developing countries. The estimates show that the switch from OPV to IPV in its current presentation for all developing countries together will result in an increase in total annual cost of ;317 million, averaging ;2.91 per child. Overall, in developing countries the switch will need ;1 million to avoid a case of vaccine-associated poliomyelitis paralysis through the switch of vaccines.