OPV or IPV vaccine for polio - which is better for my baby?

8 replies [Last post]
  • sheel3

My baby is just a month old and now I need some suggestions and clarifications about vaccines. I am wondering which vaccine is better for polio OPV or IPV. And how many doses of each type is required?

  • Naughty Dear

In my view IPV is better. I did give IPV to my daughter. In US actually they have stopped using OPV totally. Apart from IPV I have been getting the polio drops for my daughter whenever there is a Govt. program for that.

  • pepre

The effectiveness of IPV is little better than OPV but it is much more expensive. Another thing is that IPV does not have any side effects.

  • sweetlittle

In my knowledge WHO recommends OPV(Oral Polio Vaccine) for India and countries where polio is endemic. OPV causes immunity in blood and intestine and thus prevents the spread of polio in non vaccinated people.
OPV has live weakend virus and and can cause paralysis in 1 out of 2.5 million vaccinated person while IPV has killed virus and has no such associated danger/

  • sheel3

Thanks for all the information.
sweetlittle it was really helpful to get these info.
I Will go for IPV and oral drops later on as given regularly by government initiatives.

  • measha

sweetlittle wrote:
In my knowledge WHO recommends OPV(Oral Polio Vaccine) for India and countries where polio is endemic. OPV causes immunity in blood and intestine and thus prevents the spread of polio in non vaccinated people.
OPV has live weakend virus and and can cause paralysis in 1 out of 2.5 million vaccinated person while IPV has killed virus and has no such associated danger/

I never had so much of information my baby was given OPV and doctor also suggested the same at that time.

  • Chapchup

OPV is given to a baby every month from birth till 4th month. After that another dose between 6 to 18 months. Apart from this one should take a dose at every Pulse Polio till 5 years of age.

  • eva

In India OPV is recommended as it prevents the spread of Polio and in India polio is still endemic though in many advanced countries OpV has been totally replaced by IPV.

  • kaney2021

Currently there are two polio vaccines that are in use throughout the world to fight against polio. Jonas Salk, the man who invented the first, started his work on a vaccine in 1955. The vaccine worked in two steps: first a dose of killed polio virus is injected, and then an oral polio vaccine must be taken which contains a live but much weakened form of the virus.