-The Telegraph Public health experts said the situation reflected India’s poor budget allocation for health programmes An impending price rise that is likely to raise India’s budget for a key vaccine by less than Rs 100 crore has prompted the government to seek an international donor’s help at a time it has built a showpiece statue for an estimated Rs 3,000 crore. Public health experts said the situation reflected India’s poor budget allocation...

-The Hindu Why the inactivated polio vaccine is essential for India With wild polio virus strains reduced by 99.9% since 1988, the world is inching towards eradicating polio. But unfortunately, more children today are affected by the live, weakened virus contained in the oral polio vaccine (OPV) that is meant to protect them. The weakened virus in the vaccine can circulate in the environment, occasionally turn neurovirulent and cause vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV)...

-The Hindu The global vaccine 'switch', from trivalent to bivalent OPV, has been recommended by the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts as a critical component of the polio endgame strategy Beginning Monday, April 25, India will stop using the oral polio vaccine (OPV) with all three strains of the poliovirus (type 1, type 2 and type 3) and instead use OPV vaccines with only two strains — type 1 and type 3....

-The Hindu Why New Delhi must not bask in the WHO’s polio-free certification and, instead, have an ambitious plan to eradicate polio-like flaccid paralysis. On November 30, the day India introduced an Injectable Polio Vaccine (IPV) in its routine immunisation programme, stating that it “will be an important step in the Polio Endgame Strategy”, a case of Vaccine Derived Polio Virus (VDPV) was reported from New Delhi. This was the second such...

-The Hindu The launch of the inactivated polio vaccine injection marks a shift in addressing vaccine derived poliovirus cases. After nearly five polio-free years, and with the launch of the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) injection in the national immunisation programme tomorrow (November 30), India will be pushing for “endgame polio”. The injectable vaccine, which uses killed polio viruses, will be used alongside the oral polio vaccine (OPV). For now, immunisation using IPV will be...