SANOFI Pasteur has vowed to move forward and end of polio as the Department of Health (DOH) introduced the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) as part of the expanded program on immunization for children.
The universal introduction of IPV is part of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative Endgame Strategic Plan. It was endorsed by 194 countries in 2013 and offers a comprehensive road map that includes ending polio transmission, improving routine immunization rates, and creating a lasting blueprint for addressing other significant global health challenges.
“Sanofi Pasteur has been a public-health partner of Filipino health authorities for years,” said Olivier Charmeil, president and CEO of Sanofi Pasteur.
Charmeil added, “ It is our mission to build a nation where no one suffers or dies from a vaccine-preventable disease. We are very proud to help the country remain polio-free. Today the Philippines’s move is an inspiration to many countries that are likely to introduce IPV in the coming months. Today we are getting a little closer to the day when polio will be just a memory, and its horrors will be consigned to history.”
This sentiment is also echoed by Sanofi Pasteur Philippines Country Manager Ching Santos, “Sanofi Pasteur Philippines is one with the Department of Health in ending polio. Our company has provided all doses of both OPV [oral polio vaccine] and IPV to support the Philippines program against polio. We are proud to contribute to the protection of the men, women and children of our country, and will continue to provide quality and innovative products for disease prevention. Along with our partners in the immunization committee, we will carry this out with passion, knowing that we make a difference in the lives of Filipinos,” Santos said.
Last week, during the introduction of the IPV, which was held in Paranaque City Hall, several children were vaccinated with IPV Imovax® Polio.They were the first of more than two million Filipino children who will be vaccinated every year, 14 weeks after birth. One injection of IPV will be given to every child along with one injection of a pediatric pentavalent combination preventing diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, Haemophilus influenzae type B and hepatitis B, and one dose of OPV.
The IPV (injected intramuscularly) will be given in health centers in addition to the OPV drop when a child is 14 weeks old.
“The introduction of inactivated polio vaccines will allow us to improve the protection of Filipino children against polio and maintain our polio-free status in the country,” Health Secretary Enrique T. Ona declared.
The IPV protects against polio types 1 and 3 and outbreaks of wild or vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2, while the OPV is effective only against the wild poliovirus.
The inclusion of IPV is part of the country’s response to the Polio Eradication and Endgame Strategic Plan 2013-2018 that was drawn up after the May 2012 World Health Assembly declaration that the completion of poliovirus eradication is a programmatic emergency for global public health.
Globally as of September this year, there were 171 wild Polio Virus type 1 cases (152 from endemic countries and 19 from non-endemic countries) and 37 poliovirus type 2 cases reported.
In the Philippines the last recorded wild poliovirus case was in 1993. In 2000, the World Health Organization certified the Western Pacific Region, of which the country is part of, polio-free.
However, the Philippines is still a high-risk country for polio importation because of its highly mobile population, the presence of numerous airports, seaports, and other ports of entry, the presence of areas with low immunization coverage, and inadequate reporting of cases.
The country began its Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) in 1979, five years after the World Health Organization launched its EPI in 1974. At present, the program includes the administration of BCG (anti-tuberculosis), Hepatitis B, DPT (anti-diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus), OPV, HiB (anti-influenza type B), and MMR (anti-measles, mumps and rubella) vaccines.
“The DOH recognizes immunization as a key element in reducing the burden of childhood mortality and morbidity and the inclusion of the IPV boosts our children’s health and immunization programs,” the health chief concluded.
The Philippines has an emotional attachment to zero polio that stretches back to the start of mass polio epidemics in the world in the late 19th century: the first prime minister of the Philippines and a hero of the country’s anti-colonial struggles, ApolinarioMabini was a polio survivor who lived with lifelong disabilities caused by the disease.
The Philippines decided to buy IPV with its own national health budget, according to DOH Undersecretary Dr. Janette Garin.
“As a medical doctor, I am delighted that we are among the first developing countries to invest in the polio vaccine that children already get in Europe and North America. Our children deserve to be protected fully against the disease that killed and crippled so many Filipinos even during the time I was growing up”, she said.
“I am also proud that Filipinos have inspired and led many of the global civil society efforts against childhood diseases including polio. Imagining and calling for a better world is part of our national genius. Polio eradication can be our generation’s legacy to all future generations” she added.