No shortage of Polio Vaccines in country : Govt

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : The Health and Family Welfare Ministry on January 24, 2019, said there is no shortage of Oral Polio Vaccines (OPV) and Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) in the country.

“There have been some reports in the mediaregarding shortage of polio vaccine in India. This is completely incorrect. There is no shortage of Oral Polio Vaccines (OPV) and Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) in the country,” the Ministry said.

As far as polio national immunization days (NID) is concerned, the required quantity of bivalent Oral Polio Vaccine (bOPV) has already been secured for the programme. However, to ensure availability of safe and quality vaccine to the children during NID, the testing of bOPV is made more stringent and the same will be dispatched to states for public use after the clearance from national testing laboratory for each batch and Polio NID will be held soon. The Government has not postponed the NID indefinitely as wrongly reported in the media, the Ministry said, according to a PIB release.

Regarding Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV), there is neither shortage of IPV nor any shortage of funds for its procurement for Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) in the country. India has eliminated polio already and as per global guidelines, introduced IPV in its Universal Immunization Programme to safeguard the polio free status, as there are few countries where polio virus is still circulating and Polio is yet to be eliminated.