India to switch to bivalent oral polio vaccine
Q. Polio Vaccine in India is given to eligible children how many times in a year?- Published on 18 Jan 16a. 2 – every six months
b. 3 – every four months
c. 4 – every three months
d. Once every year
ANSWER: 3 – every four months
India presently follows the trivalent version of polio vaccine. It plans to switch to bivalent oral polio vaccine (OPV) from its present trivalent version. Trivalent OPV contains live and weakened versions for all the three types (1, 2 and 3) of wild polio while the bivalent vaccine will contain type 1 and 3. India has already introduced injectable inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) into its routine immunisation programme along with oral polio vaccine (OPV) from November 2015. In the first phase, IPV has been introduced in Assam, Gujarat, Punjab, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh.
