Leaders plan to retire the oral vaccine next spring and switch to the injectable version.
 
The number of new polio cases is dropping again—only 22 so far in 2015 as of April 22. Members of the agencies coordinating the “war” met April 14 in Geneva and reconfirmed plans to switch from the oral vaccine to injectable next spring.
There have been no cases in Africa since August and over a year having passed since the most recent case in the Middle East, strengthened surveillance and more children being reached with vaccines.
The switch is crucial part of the polio endgame strategy, in order to combat the very rare cases of vaccine associated paralytic polio or circulating vaccine derived polioviruses.  The type two component of oral accounts for 40 percent of cases, and upwards of 90 percent of circulating cases.  By contrast, wild poliovirus type two has not been detected anywhere since 1999.