Polio emerged as a serious health threat to the UK in the middle of the 20th century, when it caused hundreds of deaths, and thousands of paralysed children every year. Since then the disease has been eradicated from much of the world, including Europe, though it remains a problem in India, Pakistan and Nigeria.

The Disease

Polio is caused from contaminated water or food. The vast majority of people who ‘catch’ polio remain well and so do not realise they have encountered the polio virus.^{1 2} However, some become paralysed, of whom 5% die, a quarter remain moderately or severely paralysed and two thirds make a full, or nearly complete, recovery.³ Polio can paralyse any of the muscles of the body and one of the more serious effects is paralysis of the respiratory muscles used to breathe. The World Health Organisation declared Europe polio free in June 2002, though the UK had been ‘polio-free’ for considerably longer than this. The last case of paralysis recorded in the UK was in 2000 in someone who contracted polio from the – then used – live vaccine that was given as drops. There is still a theoretical possibility of catching polio in the UK from someone who is still harbouring the live vaccine virus or from imported polio, though the risk is extremely small.

The Vaccine

The IPV or ‘inactivated polio vaccine’ is made from killed virus, unlike the live polio drops used for many years in the UK. The original trials of the killed IPV vaccine, conducted in the USA in 1954 on over 600,000 schoolchildren showed that the vaccine was between 60% and 90% effective in preventing paralytic polio.⁴ Provided it is inactivated properly and free of contamination it is a very safe vaccine.⁵

The choices

Imovax
Type of vaccine:	Single inactivated polio vaccine (IPV)
Manufacturer:	Sanofi Pasteur
Protects against:	Polio
Active ingredients:	40 D antigen units type 1 polio 8 D antigen units type 2 polio 32 D antigen units type 3 polio
Mercury content:	Nil
Aluminium content:	Nil
Other ingredients:	2-phenoxylethanol Formaldehyde Neomycin Streptomycin Polymyxin B
Primary course:	3 doses, usually given in first year of life
Boosters:	Single dose 4-6 years of age Single dose 14-16 years of age

Revaxis
Type of vaccine:	Triple dT-IPV booster vaccine
Manufacturer:	Sanofi Pasteur MSD
Protects against:	Diphtheria Tetanus Polio
Active ingredients:	2U diphtheria toxoid 20IU tetanus toxoid 40 units type 1 polio 8 units type 2 polio 32 units type 3 polio
Mercury content:	Nil
Aluminium content:	0.35mg
Other ingredients:	formaldehyde 2-phenoxylethanol neomycin streptomycin polymyxin B
Primary course:	This vaccine is not suitable for use for primary immunisation
Boosters:	Single dose from the age of 6 years

D or d = diphtheria
T = tetanus
IPV = inactivated polio vaccine

The supply of single and small combination vaccines may change over time. At BabyJabs we are on the constant lookout for safe and effective vaccines to offer your child. We may obtain different vaccines to those listed above. We will only offer you alternative vaccines if we are completely confident of their safety and efficacy.


Go back to vaccines at a glance

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¹ Anonymous. Vaccination and the epidemiology of poliomyelitis. [Editorial] Lancet 1957. 272: 823.

² Horstmann D. Three Landmark Articles about Poliomyelitis. Medicine 1992: 320-25.

³ Bradley WH, Gale AH. Poliomyelitis Hospital Enquiry, 1949. 1. Monthly Bulletin of Ministry of Health & PHLS 1950: 216-220.

⁴ Francis T et al. An Evaluation of the 1954 poliomyelitis vaccine trials. American Journal of Public Health 1955; 45: 1-63.

⁵ This cannot be taken for granted as the Cutter Incident and SV40 contamination testify.