WHO will change oral serum to cut cases even further

 

As we enter Rotary’s Foundation Month, we’re happy to report that the number of new polio cases stood at 51 as of October 28, all in Pakistan and Afghanistan. While that’s more new cases than we had hoped, it is down by 77 percent from 2014 when there were 219 cases reported at the same time a year ago and 306 for all of 2014.

 

The 51 cases does not include 15 cases in countries where polio had been eradicated. Ten of those vaccine associated paralytic polio (VAPP) or circulating vaccine derived polioviruses (cVDPVs.

 

World Health Organization officials have decided to reformulate the oral polio vaccine by early next year, claiming that 90 percent of circulating cases come from one form of serum.