Polio has gone from a dreaded childhood illness in the world in the 1950's to a few localized Third World outbreaks in 1997. The World Health Organization estimates wild polio will be eliminated from the earth in the next few years. Polio is going away the same way small pox was eliminated from the earth in the early 70's. However, if polio is to be eliminated, we must continue to immunize to prevent a susceptible population from emerging before the wild virus is gone.

Before the mid 1990s, we gave the oral live virus polio vaccine. This was more effective at preventing polio than the inactivated immunization we use now, but it caused clinical polio symptoms in one child in every 1.5 million doses. Now, because there is no polio in the United States we use the inactivated (safer) immunization. In parts of the world where there is polio, the more effective live oral vaccine is used.

There is no mercury or thimersal in the injectable, inactivated polio vaccine.

The official Center for Disease Control handout for IPV is available through the CDC Vaccine Information Statements site. You should review it before getting the Inactivated Polio Vaccine for your child.

Ted Humphry, M.D.

822-2441

this information last updated 4/06

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