Bangladeshi scientists find that new oral polio vaccine develops antibodies in infants

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) – A new study has found a World Health Organization (WHO) authorized oral vaccine for the type 2 poliovirus to be safe which develops 99% protective neutralizing antibodies in previously unvaccinated newborns.

Scientists at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B), an international health research organization based in Dhaka, and partners conducted the study, which was published in the peer-reviewed journal The Lancet, ICDDR,B said in a statement.

Dr. Md. K Zaman, a senior scientist in the Infectious Diseases Division at ICDDR,B, who led the study, told Anadolu Agency that “this is the first study…conducted on mothers in their third trimester of pregnancy and their infants and shows for the first time that the oral vaccine is safe and develops 99% antibodies.”

The WHO in November 2021 approved the new two-dose oral polio vaccine.

Over 450 million doses of the newly authorized vaccine have been given under the WHO Emergency Use Listing Procedure, with no age restrictions for recipients, added Zaman, who is a former associate in the Department of International Health at US-based Johns Hopkins University.

The study was carried out in collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the International Vaccine Institute in Seoul and several other institutions and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The number of worldwide polio cases fell from an estimated 350,000 in 1988 to six in 2021.