Polio Panel: 2 Shots, Then Oral Dose

(From For the Record, Saturday, June 22, 1996): An Associated Press story Thursday erroneously reported that an injectable polio vaccine is weaker than the current oral vaccine. The injectable vaccine provides children the same level of immunity as the oral vaccine, which is made from live virus. However, only the oral vaccine prevents recipients from harboring and spreading the virus if they come in contact with it after they are vaccinated.

A federal advisory panel has recommended the first major changes in the way the polio vaccine is administered since baby boomers began getting their dose on a sugar cube in 1961.

The panel decided Thursday that infants should get two shots of a weaker version of the vaccine before being given the more potent oral dose. The goal is to reduce the risk that the vaccine itself will give children polio.

The recommendation is subject to final approval from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and doctors would not be advised to follow it until 1997.

“This is a major change. We have not made any changes like this since the 1960s,” said Dr. Walter Orenstein, director of the CDC’s National Immunization Program.

The oral vaccine, which is made from live but weakened polio virus and is currently recommended by the CDC, causes an average of eight cases of the paralyzing disease a year, out of 4 million doses given.

Giving infants polio shots before administering the oral vaccine could boost their immunity to the virus.

Opponents of the change say parents wary of giving infants shots may skip the vaccine, causing a resurgence of polio in the United States.

ILLUSTRATION: Graphic: New polio policy