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 There is no cure for polio, which attacks the nervous system and can
cause irreversible paralysis within hours of infection.
Currently, the primary tool against the disease is an oral vaccine,
which zaps all three types of polio.
The group is now recommending switching to a vaccine that only
targets types 1 and 3, between April 17 and May 1, 2016, as type 2
has not been detected since 1999 and use of the vaccine itself can
occasionally, inadvertently, aid the spread of the disease in
countries with poor vaccine coverage.
"This week a momentous decision was made. And the decision was to go
ahead and make the switch because we think we can eradicate polio.
This is a huge step towards that," the chairman of the group, Jon
Abramson, said on Friday.
The world has only once managed to eliminate a disease, which was
smallpox, but now was the time “to pull the trigger and go for polio
eradication”, Abramson said.
A global vaccination campaign has all but beaten all three types of
the wild polio virus, with only Pakistan and Afghanistan reporting
cases this year.
But people who are vaccinated excrete the virus, putting those who
have not been vaccinated at risk of catching it. Vaccine-derived
cases have recently popped up in places with low vaccine coverage,
such as Laos, Ukraine, Madagascar and Guinea.
"We want to stop that small number of type 2 that occurs in
outbreaks," said Abramson. "When we’re not giving type 2
(vaccinations) you’re not going to see those outbreaks."
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Hamid Jafari, director of polio eradication at the WHO, said the
eventual goal was to phase out the type 1 and type 3 vaccines as
well and to switch globally to "inactivated" vaccines, which are
more costly and need to be injected rather than swallowed, but don't
carry the risk of spreading the virus.
"We need at least three years of no wild polio virus circulation and
good surveillance for the Global Commission (for the Certification
of Poliomyelitis Eradication) to certify eradication of wild polio
virus," he said.
"We haven’t seen type 3 wildtype in over three years. Hopefully very
soon we will stop seeing wildtype type 1," Abramson said.
The group that he chairs, the WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of
Experts (SAGE), recommends global immunization policies to the U.N.
health agency.
(Editing by Gareth Jones)
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