Recent Scientific Development of Poliovirus Vaccines

Dear Colleagues,

In 1988, the World Health Assembly established the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI, WHA 41.28), an international effort to terminate all transmissions of wild poliovirus by 2000. Eradication requires (1) effective means to prevent poliovirus infections and/or transmissions (vaccine development, improved hygiene) and (2) effective surveillance programs to identify poliovirus infections and evaluate the effectiveness of interventions in individuals (using AFP surveillance) and/or in unidentified persons within populations (using Environmental Surveillance).

Many stakeholders have been involved in developing and improving the two main types of vaccines in current use, inactivated (IPV) and live attenuated (OPV) vaccines. However, the ideal polio vaccine, “effective in any outbreak scenario, protect[ing] all vaccinees with one dose, spread[ing] to and protect the unvaccinated population, and have[ing] no detrimental effect [1]” is yet to be developed. “Although Sabin-OPV has been the mainstay of the eradication program, its continued use is ironically incompatible with the eradication of paralytic disease (since) vaccine-derived viruses consistently emerge as a consequence of the inherent genetic instability of poliovirus”. Emergence and circulation of neurovirulent vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPVs) in populations after vaccination with live attenuated polio vaccine strains is currently the biggest obstacle for their eradication.

This Special Issue of Vaccines focuses on recent scientific advancements achieved from the development and field testing of improved, more genetically stable, oral polio vaccines as well as from current research on alternative vaccines and vaccination strategies.

Reference

1. Jenkins PC, Modlin JF. Decision analysis in planning for a polio outbreak in the United States. Pediatrics. 2006;118(2):611-8.

Prof. Dr. Lester M. Shulman
Guest Editor

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• novel oral polio vaccines (nOPV)
• vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV)
• recombination
• inactivated oral vaccine strains (sIPV)
• edible vaccines
• non-infectious vaccine-like particles (VLPs)
• subdermal administration of fractional doses
• adjuvants
• edible vaccines
• microarray patches