• From Reuters News Service

Two companies making vaccines to help the world eradicate polio are failing to produce enough, so many countries should prepare to give lower doses to make stocks last, a group of experts has advised the World Health Organization (WHO).

With polio on the brink of eradication globally, the WHO wants to see a worldwide switch from the traditional “live” oral polio vaccine, which runs the risk of spreading the disease, to an inactivated vaccine that needs to be injected.

But, WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE), which meets twice a year, said a severe shortage of inactivated vaccine means many countries should use a fractional dose, via an intra-dermal rather than intra-muscular injection, allowing each dose to go twice as far.

“There are only two manufacturers of the vaccine, and they are having some problems with production of the vaccine, and getting enough raw material of the polio virus,” SAGE Chairman Jon Abramson told reporters on a conference call.

Polio is a contagious viral disease that invades the nervous system and can cause irreversible paralysis within hours, and sometimes respiratory failure and death.

“Each time we hear that there’s a further reduction in the amount that can be anticipated, we have to make further adjustments,” Abramson said. “My hope is this problem can be Read More »