Indonesia’s polio vaccine listed under WHO emergency use

Jakarta (Indonesia Window) – Indonesia’s polio vaccine nOPV2 made by the national vaccine manufacturer, Bio Farma, was included in the World Health Organization (WHO) Emergency Use Listing (EUL) on Friday (Nov 13).

The vaccine will be used to tackle the increasing cases of vaccine-derived polio strains in a number of African and East Mediterranean countries, according to a written statement from WHO received by Indonesia Window here on Sunday.

The nOPV2 vaccine is the first vaccine of its kind to be included in the EUL, and paves the way for a list of potential COVID-19 vaccines.

Countries in the Western Pacific and Southeast Asia regions have also been affected by the vaccine-derived polio strain.

WHO noted that the world has made incredible progress toward polio eradication, reducing polio cases by 99.9 percent in the last 30 years.

But the last steps to ending this disease are proving the most difficult, particularly with continuing outbreaks of circulating vaccine-derived polio viruses (cVDPVs).

cVDPVs are rare and occur if the weakened strain of the poliovirus contained in the oral polio vaccine (OPV) circulates among under-immunized populations for a long time.

If the number of immunized children is not enough, the weakened virus can pass among individuals and over time genetically revert to a form that can cause paralysis.

Type 2 cVDPVs are currently the most prevalent form of the vaccine-derived virus.

Reporting by Indonesia Window