Even as it was announced that only one case of polio had been detected in India this year, UNICEF’s goodwill ambassador, actor Amitabh Bachchan, launched a new campaign for eradication of polio, appealing to parents to ‘Make Polio History in India.’
Bivalent oral polio vaccine targets only two types of polio viruses – P1 and P3 – but not P2, which has been eradicated globally since 1999. The earlier vaccine – trivalent oral polio vaccine – targeted all three viruses.
“The introduction of the new vaccine has helped this near eradication of the virus. The bivalent vaccine is more efficacious as compared to the trivalent vaccine.
The trivalent vaccine was administered to children in very high-risk areas including Mumbai, Thane, Malegaon, western Uttar Pradesh and Bihar (Kosi river belt). UP and Bihar have not reported any cases of polio in the past one year.
