Seychelles joins global effort to speed up polio eradication |02 September 2015

As of yesterday, September 1, Seychelles has introduced the injectable Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) into its routine immunisation programme, thus taking a landmark step to join global effort to accelerate polio eradication.

Two babies were the first to receive the vaccine at the English River Maternal and Child Health (MCH) clinic yesterday morning.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) liaison officer Dr Cornelia Atsyor, the nurse manager of the Expanded Immunisation Programme Florida Bijoux among other health officials witnessed Serra Desir, the child health nurse at the clinic, administer the vaccine to one of the babies.

The parents of four-month-old Aria Saleh Ibrahim Abdoulaye received all the preliminary information from Ms Desir before she administered the vaccine to the crying baby.

“The injection gives babies double and complete protection from polio,” said Veronique Simeon, the nurse in charge of the MCH at the English River Health Centre.

Ms Desir and Ms Simeon were among a group of health service providers and nurses working with the Expanded Immunisation Programme who last week followed an information session and training on proper administration of the vaccine provided by the Health Care Agency (HCA) with the support of two WHO consultants.

Children are routinely immunised against polio at the age of three, four, five and 18 months, six and 15 years and up until now this has been through drops given orally but as of September 1 injection has been introduced as recommended by the WHO.

Ms Bijoux said parents, especially expectant mothers and mothers attending the MCH clinics with their children are receiving all the necessary information related to the new vaccine through their clinic.

Oral polio vaccine (OPV) has been the primary tool in the global polio eradication effort and has reduced the global incidence of the disease by more than 99 percent thanks to its unique ability to stop person-to-person spread of the virus. The poliovirus is now only endemic in three countries worldwide namely Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan.

New evidence now clearly demonstrates that adding one dose of IPV to multiple doses of OPV is the most effective method available to stop the virus and protect children.

The introduction of IPV globally also paves the way for the eventual withdrawal of all OPV vaccines once polio virus transmission is stopped in the few remaining polio-affected countries.

The introduction of IPV as part of the routine immunisation schedule in Seychelles is part of a worldwide roll-out of the vaccine across 126 countries by the end of 2015 – the largest and fastest globally-coordinated vaccine introduction project in history.    

In 2013, 416 cases of polio were reported, down from more than 350,000 in 1988 when global polio eradication efforts began. Despite this progress, experts caution that polio-free countries still remain at risk of re-infection until the disease has been eradicated everywhere. Adding IPV to OPV in routine immunisation schedules globally will help protect all populations most effectively against a possible polio re-emergence.