CDC panel votes for injected, not oral, polio vaccine

POLIO QUICK FACTS

Polio, short for poliomyelitis, is a viral infection that may lead to paralysis and death. It is caused by three closely related viruses and is most commonly spread by direct contact with infected individuals. A vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas Salk in the 1950s has virtually eliminated polio from most of the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) has set a goal of global eradication of polio by the year 2000. In 1994, the WHO declared the Americas free of polio. The last case was reported in Peru in 1991. In 1995, 78 percent of children around the world had received at least three doses of polio vaccine in their first year, and half of the world's youngest children were immunized in mass vaccination campaigns. Source: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization

June 16, 1999
Web posted at: 1:49 p.m. EDT (1749 GMT)

(CNN) -- A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisory panel voted Wednesday to change the way children are vaccinated against polio, eliminating the use of oral polio vaccine in favor of injections.

The panel recommended oral vaccine be used only in rare circumstances to be outlined later and said the new rules making injections mandatory should go into effect on January 1. The panel's recommendations must be approved by CDC officials but are normally accepted without change.

For more than 30 years, children received a series of four oral polio vaccines during their first five years of life. However, about eight to 10 children each year develop polio from the oral live-virus vaccine.

To lower the risk of vaccine-associated polio, the CDC officially changed its polio vaccine schedule guidelines in January 1997. The guidelines, which were not mandatory, recommended children receive two killed-virus injections followed by two live-virus oral vaccines.

Despite the change in guidelines, some children continue to contract polio from the oral vaccine.

Parents of children with vaccine-associated polio urged CDC officials to eliminate the use of the oral polio vaccine. The new guidelines, if approved by the CDC, will do that.

Health officials have been reluctant to eliminate the oral polio vaccine because it is believed to be more effective than the injectable polio vaccine in fighting wild polio.

Some experts and parents argue there is little need for the oral polio vaccine since polio has been eradicated in the Americas.

It's expected that polio will be eradicated worldwide by the end of 2000.