Re-introducing a type of polio vaccine that became unpopular in the 1960s could hasten eradication of the crippling disease, according to a new study conducted in India.
The study, by Imperial College London and the Christian Medical College in Vellore, Tamil Nadu, suggests that the injected polio vaccine (IPV), which is rarely used today in countries affected by polio, could provide better and longer lasting protection against infection if used in combination with the more commonly used live oral polio vaccine (OPV).
Vaccination protects an individual against contracting polio, but they can still be infected by the virus, which replicates in the gut and can be passed to others through contact with infected faeces.
This has led to serious polio outbreaks in Asia, Africa and Europe over the last 10 years and is hampering efforts to eradicate the disease.
Most vaccination campaigns use multiple doses of OPV that provide some gut immunity, although this wanes over time.
"Because IPV is injected into the arm, rather than taken orally, it's been assumed it doesn't provide much protection in the gut and so would be less effective at preventing faecal transmission than OPV," said Dr Jacob John, Associate Professor at the Christian Medical College, who led the study.
"However, we found that where the children already had a level of immunity due to OPV, the injected vaccine actually boosted their gut immunity.
"In the 1960s there was extensive rivalry between the scientists who developed the two vaccines, with OPV eventually becoming the most popular. But it looks as if the strongest immunity can been achieved through a combination of the two," said John.
The study involved 450 children from a densely populated urban area in Vellore, all of whom had received the oral polio vaccine as part of a standard vaccination programme.
Half of the children were given a dose of the injected vaccine and half given nothing. One month later, the children were given a 'challenge' dose of the live oral vaccine to simulate reinfection.
Their stools were tested after seven days to see if the virus was present, specifically the two remaining serotypes of the virus which are resisting eradication - serotype 1 and serotype.
In the children who had received the IPV, the researchers found that 38 per cent fewer had serotype 1 in their stool and 70 per cent fewer had serotype 3, compared to those who had not been given the injected vaccine.
"Our findings show that an additional dose of the injected vaccine is more effective at boosting immunity against infection than the oral vaccine alone," said Nick Grassly, senior author of the study.
"This implies that the IPV could be used to boost immunity in people travelling from or to polio-infected countries, such as Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria," said Grassly.
The finding was published in The Lancet.
